Apocatastasis
by LegatusAntonius
Summary: A Hero, A Beacon of Hope, An Angel of Death, and a Drunkard if you ask around. That was Alex Guerrero, savior of two Wastelands, but with the rapid development of the Wasteland the Courier reached ever higher for new and old technologies, it was this same hubris that led to the downfall of the old world and would lead to his predicament of being trapped in a new world.
1. Chapter 1

**It's Not for Me to Say **

The Lone Wanderer, The Sixth Courier, The Lone Courier, The Angel of Death, and that one guy who still has a bar tab of 20 caps back at some dive in Denver. But a lotta people just call him Alex. Currently our illustrious hero is combating his arch-nemesis in mortal combat … his hangover … and the lack of clothing.

"Waa… Ehhh… huh … oh … oh… oh fuck, another night in the stew" said Alex

He rose up like a great Phoenix to meet the day, he could slowly feel the testosterone surge through him and the expansion of his mighty and heroic chin. Not even the terrible, and now deceased, Legate Lanius could stand up to the Courier in such a form!

That was a lie.

He tried rising to his feet, but he just ended up crawling on all fours over to his penthouse bed. After his daring and arduous adventure, he scaled the walls of Mt. Bed finally atop the comfy blankets and pillows. This was not to last with his Pip-Boy suddenly blaring an unholy beep that rung his head like a bell tower. Lifting the Pip-Boy to his face he saw it was a message from Dr. Klein reading IMPORTANT. It was regarding something about the satellites being ready to test for teleportation.

This probably needs some context

After the battle of Hoover Dam the Courier helped secure it alongside the NCR, the NCR, in turn, gave Six awards and allowed him to Legally own the Lucky 38 (after they raided the place making off with all of Houses equipment), Alex also had something of a company in the works obtaining all the legal documents through some of his friends in NCR (aka bribed a few officials to give the necessary paperwork to be a legit company). He called the business the Guerrero company after his last name, it would mainly specialize in Aerospace products like XVBO1 and 2 vertibirds along with cargo planes and jets. His main customer would mostly be the NCR as they would have enough funds to buy his products, other organizations either were too far away to ship products or flat out hated his guts. Later down the road, Alex planned on manufacturing aerospace products for civilian purposes but for now, his number one customer would have to be the NCR.

The Company also had a Subsidiary called Hoplon Defense Services, made up of former NCR army Special forces, Rangers, and pilots. They operate as Intelligence contractors along with consulting and training NCR SWAT teams and police officers. On a side note Alex was genuinely surprised that the NCR even had SWAT teams, let alone ones that were kitted out way better than their soldiers in the Mojave. Hoplon Defense's real purpose was to act mostly as a paramilitary organization under the Guerrero Company.

Alex would go on operations with these guys to retrieve technology from Pre-War R&D facilities, raiding slaver compounds, and securing highways leading into Utah and Colorado. NCR still struggled to deal with Raiders especially in Vegas as brahmin barons back west put pressure on the army to have troops sent to patrol around their ranches, in case of a serious raider threat Hoplon came in and took care of it. Alex offered Boone a position as a sniper instructor and as his bodyguard on occasions, Boone accepted the position in a heartbeat… which for Boone means 5 seconds of silence followed with the driest 'sure' you'll ever hear.

With the Guerrero Company now officially based out from the Lucky 38 they grew within the next 6 years to rival even the Gun Runners as a major defense contractor for the NCR. Alex owed a lot of his success to the people who help run the company like a well-oiled machine, primarily his Co-CEO George Clemente who kept a tight ship when Alex was out running ops or at Big MT. The technologies he scavenged from Big MT, the Sierra Madre, and even Mothership Zeta contributed a lot to the company's success as well.

Don't get it twisted though, Alex wasn't churning out VTOLS and jets like hotcakes it still took a while to process raw materials and then start making the parts to be slapped on the assembly line, but by wasteland standards, it was an amazing feat.

Alex also had stuff made in house that wasn't for commercial purposes, it's mostly schematics for armor, weapons, and vehicles that never reached mass production on the account of the world ending.

From these in-house products, he'll have a research unit from Hoplon to test them out such as newer versions of night vision goggles, chest plates, guns, armored vehicles, and even jets before decking out other Hoplon units with the new goodies. Further down the line, Alex had plans to introduce his line of chest plates and chest plate carriers but for now, he focused on his NCR commissions.

Alex funded constructions of 2 kill houses to use for Hoplon Counter-terrorist training, Alex was paranoid about Legion diehards conducting terrorist attacks after the battle of Hoover Dam, Caesar was essentially deified after his death and that kept the Legion going for a little while longer but it was never the same afterward, it was only until now turmoil was starting to ramp up in Legion lands mixed in with this religious fervor that threatened to spill over into the NCR and it did to some extent in the form of a hostage situation, but NCR SWAT teams did a pretty good job of handling it.

The Think Tank also blinged-out Alex with an overhaul with some of his equipment, his Pip-boy was the first significant change, taking some of the technology from Mothership Zeta they managed to get stuff to materialize and de-materialize within the Pip-boy that was stored in a pocket dimension, some advanced green man shit. Other changes were more mundane such as the ability to send him messages from the Think Tank so he can approve of designs and keep tabs on the research. Originally, they wanted to make phone calls through his Pip-Boy, but he shot them down, his head already throbbed enough when around them.

On a good day, Alex will get a pleasant surprise from them such as the satellites they had in the works, it would help with reconnaissance and communications especially in more remote areas and would be invaluable to operators in Arizona, they also had the dual function of assisting with teleportation using a laser pointer on a location it would allow for a faster response to emergencies and provided an easier mode of travel to more isolated communities.

So that was the whole rundown of how Alex was getting messages from his Pip-Boy and why there are brand spanking new satellites in space, a bit longwinded but necessary to understand a bit of the development in Alex's life.

We return now to our valiant hero overcoming the woes of hangover, through the abysmal sounds of him retching out his organs into a nearby ice bucket.

"Jesus fucking Christ" slurred out Alex

Probably should have stayed away from the Super Mutant hooch

After Six's retching fest was complete he cleaned up washing his face and mouth, Alex got back into his usual morning routine of starting up his pot of coffee and cooking his breakfast of cubed radstag meat with some potatoes and jalapeño peppers, some bald hunter dude back out east taught him how to cook the meat just right, nice guy even taught him a few grappling techniques but he kept asking if ever did DMT. Anyways Alex had his breakfast by the windows and checking his schedule for the day, while George ran the finer aspects of the company Alex still had to do his part by being the face of it. His morning was pretty much clear until noon. where he had to attend a Union rally.

Another player in the Western wasteland was the Trade Unions, they came and went throughout the history of the NCR, but the new wave of unions surged during the NCR's campaign in New Vegas. He was going out to show support for Marie Brown running for president of the National Workers League, herself being popular among caravanners out in California and being a Vegas native herself won her some points here, but if Alex hadn't come in with his support her campaign in New Vegas would have most likely landed flat on its face, her opponent David Mathews, also a Vegas native, is wildly more anti-NCR making him popular amongst the people most affected by the new Regimes heavy taxes.

In exchange for his support, Marie would essentially be acting under the influence of the Guerrero Company, netting them funds that they can use to refurbish and open up new casinos under the Guerrero Co. meaning a fat payday for the company, or at least Alex hoped so.

Did actions like this make the NCR wary of Alex and his growing power? Absolutely, there was even a whole committee dedicated to throwing Alex in prison a few years back, but they couldn't find any substantial evidence against him and so the charges were dropped, they tried to use the fact that since Guerrero Co. owned Hoplon they would try to use that PMC force to take over the region, it was dismissed since the other Defense contractors had fucking private militaries of their own, the only difference was that his had Vertibirds and frankly it was flimsy reasoning trying to catch him on those charges.

Alex finished his breakfast, had a quick shave, and got dressed. His suit was Benny's suit but instead of the shirt and tie he had a black turtle neck, at first checkered suit jackets annoyed the fuck out of him, but somewhere down the line, he took a liking to them so he decided to pick one up for himself. Cass likes to bust his balls every time they see each other saying that he's 'dressed like a dumbass'. His fragile ego was damaged, but he'll be damned if someone ever tries to stop him from wearing this fashion masterpiece.

His morning is also never complete without that usual deep pit of despair that claws at his insides, usually happens shortly after he wakes up, as a matter of fact, Six is deeply melancholic but does a pretty good job of hiding it, but he'll have his moments where he's really in the stew and not in the edgy way a teenager is, more in the shutting himself off from the world, feeling wildly anxious, and paranoid type way. It was always a lot easier dealing with it when he was traveling the wastes, always being on the move and drinking so his nightmares didn't come to haunt him.

Speaking of which he did develop a certain fondness for hooch, a little too much, some might even call him an alcoholic. When Alex loaded himself up with a plethora of cybernetics a side-effect was that most of his favorite drinks couldn't get him drunk anymore, turns out super mutants have a bit of the same problem so he turned to Marcus, who luckily enough, knew a special moonshine recipe, it would kill a regular human and not just because of the high alcohol content but because of the drugs mixed into it that can get super mutants shit faced.

After his usual sit down with sorrow, Alex headed down to wait for Boone and his convoy, Alex knew a couple of guys out in New Reno that modified cars for the Bishops, they're armored up while being aesthetically pleasing, it cost him an arm and leg to commission three Highwaymen, but it was worth it.

Alex waited for a little while but as usual, Boone showed up at least 15 minutes early to everything, and as per usual every time Boone and Six see each other it's just a simple nod, rolling out with the convoy Alex noticed Boone was wearing his usual plate carrier, 1st Recon Beret, and signature shades. Boone started wearing more armor after having a heart to heart at Bitter Springs, he convinced Boone to let go of his past and try to make the best of his time on Earth to make the wasteland a better place, it'd be better if he didn't look like he was ready for a shootout though.

"Expecting to get hit by an angry gang of grandmas?" asked Alex

"Hmph, No, doesn't hurt to be ready though," said Boone, inspecting his MK12

"Speaking of angry grandmas, any new reports on the Legion?" said Alex

"Yeah, Legions still dealing with rebels in New Mexico, Denver and Boulder city completely broke away, and we just took back Fort Abandon," said Boone

A quirk with Boone is that when talking about the NCR is that he often says 'we' whenever talking about NCR actions, it confuses the hell out of Alex sometimes but for the most part he's learned to deal with it.

"Thinking NCR's gonna make a push into Arizona?" asked Boone

"Most likely, get em while their pants are down, probably sending that fucking cocksucker Rowlinson alongside Moore to fumble it all the way to Flagstaff. I mean shit you remember when they sent him in to take Cottonwood cove and he struggled, he struggled to take it from a skeleton crew, and he had an entire battalion and two M60's against maybe a Century of Legionnaires, pussyfooted harder than fucking Oliver and when he finally engaged he wanted the tanks up on the cliffs instead of moving in with the troops, some of his boys died and a lot more got injured, wasn't like the Legion was fighting hard either they were trying to peel out with the slaves. Still promoted that fucker because he managed to free the slaves after the fact, and because his daddy is some big brahmin baron" when he heard of it from Hsu, Alex was pissed off to the utmost extreme even still to this day, also when he met Rowlinson for the first time he was complete dickhead.

"Mhm" replied Boone, Boone's usual response to Alex after he goes on a longwinded rant

After that, it was just a silent car ride to the event Boone usually didn't speak much and Alex's headache was flaring up again after his rant.

"Okay looks like we're pulling up to the event I'll be posted up on the building across the street," said Boone.

"Alright cool, look out for other dark and broody shooters," said Alex

"Hmph, will do, I'll look out for any loudmouthed jackasses too," said Boone

Exiting the car with a chuckle, Alex walked with his two Hoplon guys to meet Marie, she legitimately believes in the well-being of workers and had pretty good plans for negotiating with NCR officials and companies to guarantee more benefits for her union members, but she didn't capture that large anti-NCR sentiment that Mathews had so she had to turn to Alex for support, it's a little shady what she was doing paying into Guerrero Co., but Alex isn't a bad guy, by wasteland standards, and promised to donate funds to the NWL so they could grow and expand.

Marie and Alex shook hands, making small talk and eventually brought the topic of Mathews up.

"Has he been harassing you as of late?" asked Alex

"Sure has, he called me the other day and was just cursing, and I mean cursing. So. Much. It was unbelievable, he found out Larry, my husband, is from San Francisco and the idiot thinks it's a part of the NCR and was saying just absolutely disgusting things about me and my family" said Marie shaking her head in disbelief

It pissed Alex off because she was a sweet lady with two kids, a little too clean if you asked him since she never drank or even cursed at all to his knowledge. Without her knowing Alex had some Hoplon dudes watch her house after she told him about Mathews harassment a month back.

Alex told her not to worry and that if Mathews tries to send some of his thugs to her house to just call Alex and he'll send help right away. They continued to make small talk for a few minutes before the rally started.

The rally went off without a hitch, the King even came to show support albeit late and had to be invited on stage because of the clamor people were making over him being a Freeside celebrity and all that. A couple of guys were arrested after being patted down and finding guns on them, they were suspected to be Mathews supporters, but they didn't make any mentions of him.

It was honestly boring; Alex was at least expecting his convoy to get ambushed and into an epic shootout with some bad guys, considering wherever Alex goes there's always some type of violence. He was by no means ungrateful, but he did get a bit antsy when he's not out there in wastes saving hapless villagers from destruction, but he came to the realization that there was only so much he could do by himself and while he was saving one place from being destroyed another was already dust in the wind, it was still the case even with his growing influence but at least he could save a lot more people a lot faster with a large team.

He'd still be out in the wastes or better yet in a bed rather than catering to a hangover at a large event

After the rally Alex had a quick lunch and headed back to the Lucky 38, from there he teleported into Big MT, on the way into the Think Tank he grabbed his 3-day assault pack, which is a backpack equipped with extra ammo, food, and tools to survive for at least three days, he had more stuff in his Pip-Boy but he could carry extra when he brought the pack, walking into the Think Tank he was greeted by Dr. Klein.

Now Alex has good reasons as to why he keeps his visits to the Think Tank brief, for starters Klein never fixed his volume levels and adamantly refused even the idea of Alex fixing his volume knob saying that he'd be 'TOUCHING ME WITH HIS LITTLE PENISES'.

What a way to break a man's heart.

Another reason and the most important is that they're all crazed Pre-War scientists that would, at the drop of a hat, unleash a torrent of cruel and unusual experiments on the denizens of the waste. Unfortunately, he was subject to one of these experiments in the form of the cloud. He saw the various experiments used here aswell during his short stay, also he didn't appreciate the fact that they cut him up for his brain leading to an awkward conversation with... his own brain, but that's a story for another time

So while the Think Tank are geniuses, they're mad geniuses in the worst possible way, he already had a few contingencies in place in the event that they ever got ambitious again and tried to find another way out. Well not like actual plans he was just gonna grab an emp grenade and lob it at them, but it made him feel special in his own basement operator way calling it a contingency.

"AHH, HELLO I TRUST THAT YOU'RE READY TO GET STARTED," said Klein

"Yeah let me just put my face on," said Alex

Alex's 'face' is his modified elite riot armor, as he de-materialized the armor it showered him in a bright white light, he used parts of the stealth armor Mk II and Chinese stealth suit to give him better stealth capabilities such as invisibility, he kept the AI from the stealth suit giving her a few upgrades and dubbing her Panacea, usually, Alex calls her Pan, a lame nickname but Alex wasn't a naming genius. Panacea could now hack into computers a lot faster than he could, he did it by plugging her in through a cable that can extend on the back of his helmet. On top of that, she provided tactical assistance and kept him company when he went out on his lonesome.

His Riot helmet also had new features, such as the ability to tune into radio signals and intercepting them, helped a ton when dealing with overly ambitious raiders or Talon mercs, especially when he can hear everything they're saying. He also added thermal vision but besides that, it was still the normal ole' riot helmet.

The body armor itself was pretty much the same as well, with the exception of the integrated Chinese stealth suit and the ammo pouches he added to the chest plate. Alex at first had the idea of using Saturnite for his chest plate since it worked great as body armor and could be used as a weapon, but the fact that it held onto heat for an unusual amount of time was a deal-breaker for him, he'd rather not be cooked alive.

Onto his rifle, Alex used a modified All American, the modifications are an extended barrel with a foregrip, suppressor, and a AN/PEG slapped on top. Alex wanted to be prepared in case wherever he teleported to, he had to get into a scrap.

There was still a shit ton of gear he had on his Pip-Boy but he'd go over it later. Alex, on top of his alcoholism, he had a hoarding problem, not as bad as his drinking though he'll throw stuff of out like scrap metal or whatever, then again it was almost always so that he can carry another shiny new gun and not be weighed down.

"Did you miss me?" asked Panacea

Chuckling Alex said "Always do"

"IF YOU WOULD PLEASE STOP IN YOUR ATTEMPTS TO FRATERNIZE WITH ARTIFICAL INTELLIGENCE WE CAN GET ON WITH THE EXPERIMENT," said Klein

"Alright, alright so how does this thing work," asked Alex

"IT USES ADVANCED LASER POINTER TECHNOLOGY TO… POINT AT AREAS YOU WISH TO TRAVEL TOO, AND OTHER SCIENCY THINGS," said Klein

Alex sighed, and would have rubbed his temples if he could, Klein never really understood the technologies he was working on or rather his colleagues were working on, but that was pretty much how it worked, at least to his knowledge. He'd ask one of the Think Tank later for exact details

"So where am I headed," asked Alex

"TO THE EAST COAST, SPECIFICALLY WASHINGTON D.C. 20 KILOMETERS FROM THE PENTAGON," said Klein

"Alright well here goes nothing," said Alex

He'd probably stop and say hello to Arthur while he was there if he hadn't already left for his campaign in Boston, something about a synth epidemic.

Activating the transportalponder Mk II Alex witnessed the usual white light burst into his eyes and then suddenly a pitch darkness, it was trippy as fuck, almost like dying well it essentially WAS dying but he didn't like to think about that. With another flash of light, Alex was back in the material world.

And falling

"Wha- oh fuck, fuck, fuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuu-"

**AN: First fanfic, mostly inspired by other stories such as The Bringer of War, A New World, A New Threat, and even the movie The Irishman. I've been doing this late at night or early in the morning depending on how you view it. Any constructive criticism is greatly appreciated, I'm by no means a writer so any advice to help become a better writer and produce better content is, as I've said, greatly appreciated.**


	2. Chapter 2

**Concrete Jungle**

"-UUUUCK,"

*CRASH*

"Gah… Jesus fuck Christ!"

While Alex considered himself a certified cyborg badass, there was nothing cybernetic about his actual ass.

Which he fell on.

Hard.

He swore he could feel his ass cave in.

"Fucking Jes- damn it, Pan! Where's my fucking Med-X!" said Alex

"Oh, sorry, I was taking a nap, administering Med-X," said Pan

"Ahh alright, alright, thank you, ma'am," said Alex

While Alex shouldn't be taking Med-X for a very minor injury, he was shot a few days ago in the ass while chasing down some raiders and it flared up again with his fall.

With the sweet nectar of Med-X Alex could finally get off his ass and get a good look around, the first things he noticed after his fall was that his ass was damp

'Fuck, did I just shit my pants' must be that Gecko steak he had for lunch giving him diarrhea.

As he rose up, he noticed he was on some table and landed on someone's lunch, oh and the multitude of screaming civilians. Looking around, a lot of people looked panicked and were pulling out rectangular device s, either putting them up to their ears or pointing them in his direction.

He was in some type of large food court, base floor of possibly a shopping mall

The next thing that stood out to him was that everything is clean, relatively, but in the Wasteland, this would be too clean. Even in places like the NCR they were never this clean, there would still be a little more griminess.

Even the clothing of the people, there was a lot more variety and while it didn't look too out of the ordinary, it was just a little different from what he was accustomed too. The strangest thing was the animal parts he saw on some folk, wolf ears, horns, lion tails.

Mutants?

Alex made all these observations in short order; he knew that if he didn't calm these people down soon, he was going to be in deep shit.

"You landed on my food! You Douchebag!" yelled out some lovely gentleman

Well, at least now he knew they speak English.

Alex stuffed the Transportponder Mk II into his large inside pocket

Activating the loudspeakers on his helmet, he addressed the crowd

"Uh…Citizens…Worry not this is a part of a military exercise" said Alex

This didn't seem to placate the crowd if anything it probably spiked more fear and confusion in them. Give him a break, his ass is wet, and he has no idea where he is, his priority is to get the fuck out of here as quickly as possible.

There was a series of whispers, lot of the words he picked up on were 'Atlas', Huntsman', 'White Fang', and 'Douchebag'.

He didn't know what they were talking about, besides being called a douchebag, but it sounded a lot like the name for organizations, it made his asshole pucker a bit, things were about to take a turn for the worst if he was associated with what could be a terrorist group.

"Uh oh," said Pan

"Well…guess I'll be leaving now, enjoy the rest of your day," said Alex

Stepping off the table, Alex tried walking away and play it as cool as possible, but honestly it was just all types of awkward, for him and the crowd.

Pan seemed to be enjoying Alex, a Wasteland legend, acting like an awkward schoolboy

"Maybe if you had a dance routine they'll clap as you walk out," said Pan

Turning off his external speakers Alex responded "Shut up, I can't just sprout wings and fly off to Neverland, there's no dodging this bullshit"

"Maybe a scene skip would help more," said Pan

"What the hell are you on about?" said Alex

"Oh nothing, don't worry," said Pan

Alex was trying to keep cool and calm but also trying to haul ass before any law enforcement came. He may or may not have stashed some narcotics in his assault pack.

What can he say? It'd be a pain in the ass to re-create the drugs just so he can drink his favorite moonshine.

Before Alex could haul ass out of there, he saw 4 Mall cops making a beeline straight for him, they looked scared shitless though, like they were just told to clear out a Deathclaw nest with nothing but tighty whities and a knife. One of the cops with snow-white hair, big muscles, and had polar bear ears just looked flat out annoyed, looked like he had a serious chip on his shoulder.

Alex noticed that they had legitimate battle belts with pistols, tasers, and pepper spray.

'Who gave these rent-a-cops guns?' thought Alex

It weirded him out quite a bit, he didn't know if those guns had real bullets or rubber bullets and wasn't planning on finding out.

One of the Mall cops approached him, kid was shaking like a leaf

"Uh, e-excuse me s-s-sir b-but I'm going t-to need y-your huntsman I.D. o-o-or your p-permit," said the Mall cop.

'Huh, what'd I hunt here? Brahmin burgers and fries?' thought Alex

"Uh…well I don't have any I.D. on me, I just crashed on this lovely gentleman's lunch," said Alex

"Cunt!" yelled out the lovely gentleman

"W-w-well I-I-I'm s-sorry sir but we've a-already notified p-police, s-so we'll n-need your h-huntsman I-I.D. or p-permit," Said the mall cop

"Look dude we can just settle this off to the side, we don't have to involve the law, just between you and me, it's all just a misunderstanding," said Alex

Alex meant it, these drugs are illegal in at least 4 different states in the NCR, and he'd rather not have a criminal record in a possibly a foreign country, it'd be a PR disaster for Guerrero Co.

Operating on the basis that he was still in the wastes

The kid with the attitude started getting red and was fuming

Jesus, this kid had a real hard-on for Alex

"S-sir I s-s-still nee-"

"L-l-look here pal, I'm kinda in a rush and need to leave immediately so cut me some slack and let go of this tiny little issue," said Alex

White-haired guy had enough.

"Jack, stop being a pussy, this guy is just some retard with a toy gun!" Polar Bear popped his lid

"Hey fuck you, bro, my ass is damp and I need to leave," said Alex

Not the best of quips

"Need to run back to mommies because you shit your pants you tacticool retard," said the mall cop getting more ramped up

"Fuck off dickhead, shouldn't you be in a cage somewhere doing tricks for kids," said Alex

Immediately Alex noticed the mall cops jaw lock and was shaking a bit in anger, probably wasn't too happy about that comment

Polar Bears buddies looked scared shitless

"Okay asshole, I've had it, get down on the ground!" said the mall cop making his way towards Alex and reaching out to grab his arms

Alex kicked Polar Bear straight in the stomach knocking the wind out of him, Alex backed up putting his hands on his rifle and went into a stance, bringing up his rifle like a jab, knees slightly bent, and a forward lean from the waist.

"BACK UP! BACK UP!" yelled out Alex

He was going to try to get the guards to back away from him, keeping them contained and away from himself, even if they drew their weapons or rushed him Alex is much, much faster.

They'd be on the ground before they drew their guns.

Unfortunately, Polar Bear tried to draw on him. Alex decided if he wanted the smoke, he was gonna give it to him.

In an amazing feat of speed, Alex shot each of Polar Bears kneecaps two times

*CRACK* *CRACK*

*CRACK* *CRACK*

Contrary to popular belief silencers aren't that quiet

"Sneaking done, fighting now," said Pan

'Damn it Pan shut up' thought Alex

Polar Bear tried moving towards cover but instead stumbled and collapsed languishing in pain. He collapsed like a sack of potatoes, if potatoes had kneecaps, or even nociceptors.

The crowd panicked, screaming and running in all directions. With the flurry of sound adrenaline was pumping hard in Alex putting him in the zone, he pushed out all the sounds of the screaming crowd and focused on his current objective

He needs to make sure these guys aren't threats anymore, they maybe currently paralyzed in fear, and one down on the ground, but he didn't know how long that'd last before they decided to start acting brave.

"DROP YOUR GUNS RIGHT NOW! DROP EM' AND SLIDE EM' OVER!" yelled Alex

The three chicken shits immediately dropped their guns and slid them over to Alex, Polar Bear still had the gun in his hand, thinking he could make a last stand.

"SLIDE YOUR GUN OVER NOW DUDE!" barked out Alex

Polar Bear hesitated

*CRACK*

Alex shot Polar Bears hand, he howled in pain flipping over onto his stomach, blood oozing out from his hands and knees.

Alex pointed his gun at one of the mall cops

"YOU, GRAB HIS GUN AND SLIDE IT OVER. NOW!"

The guard complied and hastily grabbed the gun, sliding it over.

"GET DOWN ON THE GROUND AND PUT YOUR HANDS BEHIND YOUR BACK!" ordered Alex

Once they finished complying Alex booked it.

He had a few flex cuffs in his go bag but there were only two and he needed to get out of that shitstorm before the actual cops showed up.

Running past screaming civilians, he had no idea where he was running but was making a dash anywhere but there, to the people Alex was a blur running like his ass was on fire. What went from a possibly harmless huntsman up to their usual antics turned into a violent gunman.

Six will admit that he lost his cool and messed up big time, he could have just kicked the guy then make a run for it, but instead, he put himself in a fucked situation if cops showed it would have escalated even further.

Thankfully he didn't encounter any more security and after 12 seconds of his mad dash he found an exit.

Leading out to the parking lot, Alex did a quick scan around the area checking for any police or police cars, with the coast clear he activated his activated his stealth field

"Shhh We're very stealthy," said Pan

Alex continued his mad dash, nothing made sense, mall cops with guns, how everything looked, relatively, clean. Shit even seeing the parking lot floored Alex

There was a lot of cars, even in New Vegas this parking lot would have been half empty on a packed day.

Leaving the parking lot and crossing a main street, he ran into an area with apartments and stores. Finding an alleyway, Alex ducked in making sure no one was watching, he deactivated his stealth field.

Alex crouched down and looked at his Pip-Boy map.

NO CONNECTION.

Fuck.

Reaching into his coat, Alex pulled out the Transportalponder Mk II it looked fine externally, but once he opened it up it was all types of fried internally. It was manageable in the grand scheme of things since he still had the other Transportalponder, so he could take some of the components and tune it up

Problem was that the Mk II had some completely new parts that he'd have to either find the parts or make them from scratch. That was the first major hurdle, the second was the fear that if he used the Mk II again, he'd either have his atoms ripped apart killing him or successfully teleport back to Big MT but have his entire anatomy rearranged.

A major indicator he wasn't in the Wasteland anymore was the fact he was getting no service, that shouldn't be the case Robco had a large coverage, even if there was something wrong with the Robco ones his Pip-Boy would have fallen back to the satellites he launched recently.

De-materializing his gear he switched over to Benny's suit and shoved A Light Shining in Darkness into his inside pocket.

He was lucky he made it out in time before the police came and grateful that nobody got too hurt, well… except for that one guy but he'll bounce back… maybe.

Unfortunately, his gear was compromised including his Pip-Boy, a lot of people saw his gear, there were also the security cameras that the mall most likely had.

His Pip-Boy would stick out like a sore thumb here, even in the Wasteland it got him into some trouble, Alex began his search for store carrying backpacks or sports bags.

After a little while of walking around and receiving a few strange stares, he finally found a sports store with what he was looking for.

Alex walked away into an empty and secluded place, activating the stealth nano-bots he had installed and returned to the store. A side note, Alex likes redundancies, having backups gave him peace of mind also the nano-bots only worked for a brief time before they had to recharge.

The store was empty save for the cashier who was currently taking a well-deserved nap, there was even ambient music playing, guy didn't even bother locking up the store.

He grabbed a backpack and a duffel bag, making off with his plunders Alex ducked into another conveniently placed alley, de-materializing his duffel bag, Alex began to fiddle around with the Pip-Boy, it was always a pain in the ass removing the damn thing but somehow way easier to put on, he'd have to mess with some screws that loosened up the clamps, for whatever reason it still wouldn't budge.

Berating himself, Alex wished he brought some type of lube. He'd get into a lot less trouble on the streets and in the sheets.

After a solid 2 minutes of looking like an idiot, he finally pried off his accursed Pip-Boy

"Should have snagged that 2000 model back in California," Alex grumbled to himself

Slipping the Pip-Boy into his backpack, Alex walked around looking for victims to pickpocket, the sun was setting, it'd soon be dark. Alex was by no means a kleptomaniac, but he was just dropped into a whole new arena, so he needed the two most important things right now, currency and information. For information, he'd visit a library but since it was getting dark out, he'd wait until tomorrow. For now, he'll settle on looking at advertisements along with eavesdropping on conversations and try to piece things together from there.

Money was important wherever you went, hence the pickpocketing, he needed money to buy a place to stay, procuring documents since he technically didn't exist here he'd have to find someone who'll take care of forgeries, buying new guns and ammunition and booze. The most important was booze, specifically finding a bar where he could sit in a quiet corner and meditate, it's true whiskey might give him a buzz if he drinks enough of it but he was there mainly to meditate or make color commentary on the inhabitants of whatever dive he was at.

Alex picked up on some of the local terminologies such as Lien being the local currency, and that Scrolls were like telephones but much more advanced and portable. There were terms that still alluded him such as Dust, he chuckled a bit at the thought of the name, it was in the context of some guy needing fuel for his car, he first assumed it was some sort of local slang but he saw store signs that incorporated the name Dust with multicolored crystals on display so he put a pause on that thought process.

He learned that he was currently in the city of Vale, he heard of other names of possible cities like Vacuo, Mistral, and Atlas. Beyond that folks didn't really mention any towns or villages besides how dangerous they were, and he only heard of at least two other major cities.

Another term that kept coming up repeatedly was Huntsman and Grimm, it was the same one he heard the security guards and people at the mall use, but Grimm? As in the brothers Grimm? From what he gathered they were a polarizing group, some praised them getting giddy talking about what he'd assume are famous Huntsman, others grumbled at the mention of them looking around and mumbling under their breathes how they're all scumbags with big guns. Alex still didn't know what they're exactly, obviously some type of paramilitary at the mention of weaponry but then again, they were also talked about as if they were some big Pre-war Hollywood stars.

Grimm was some type of local fauna that the Huntsman…hunted on a regular basis, beyond that information was scarce besides them being big and scary. He heard it from some 5 year old's playing a game and arguing over what Grimm looked like, so he took it with a grain of salt.

There were no mentions at all of any places that he was familiar with, this was all pretty new to him, he ruled out being in Europe since he heard and saw English wherever he went and heard lot's of folk speak in a variety of American dialects.

He didn't know what to think, all he knew was that his rampant spree of tactical procurement and intelligence gathering was complete for the day. Alex managed to gather a few good scores from some more well-off types allowing to find himself a place to stay for a little while and he even got a map of the city. One last piece of information he managed to acquire was from a young couple talking about a nightclub, apparently, it was located on Rue street in a sketchy part of town and is called Juniors, they don't card, and the club is also really nice inside. From what he's heard.

He'd keep that in mind

For now, he had an apartment to find.

The architecture reminded Alex a lot of Pre-war pictures of France and other European cities he'd see in books, holotapes, and travel brochures. Picturesque was the best way of describing it, it filled him with a sense of innocent wonder and awe something he hadn't felt in a long time. He'd always dreamed of seeing New Vegas being rebuilt from the ground up, he was in process of doing so before he left, besides funding his company he put major funds into restoration projects of New Vegas, clearing out the rubble, restoring condemned buildings, and cleaning up the streets, literally and figuratively.

NCR helped a bit, but they were more concerned about collecting taxes and sending power back to California.

Alex knew he was just playing the same game the Bishops had in New Reno, Alex was the head honcho of New Vegas in all but name, keeping the families on a tight leash, nothing major went through without his knowing, whether it was new businesses sprouting up or troop movements, the only difference between him and the Bishops was that he was trying to clean up the streets and not get his people high 24/7.

In the long run, all of Alex's efforts might just be in vain, only to have someone corrupt his ideals or projects for their own selfish purposes. He supposed that's just the way of things and there's not much he can do about that.

The Wasteland showed time and again that dirty deeds were sometimes necessary for long term success, even if the intentions of these individuals were less than pure, it spawned prosperous communities in the wastes that otherwise would have died out long ago, it was that greed to expand, to gain more profits and resources. It was the same greed that led to the end of the world and ironically also led to the rebuilding of it as well.

There was never such a thing as a happy ending in the Wasteland.

Only Bittersweet ones.

'Jesus Christ this place is making me broody, I need a drink' thought Alex

He walked for a little while deep in thought and day turned to dark.

His ruminations lasted right up until he started walking into the grimy areas of the Commercial District, ah this was more like it. Rundown apartments, boarded-up stores, hookers, pimps, drug dealers, homeless people, smoggy mist, and the sight of a child chasing an oversized rat with a butcher knife. Just like home, at least in northern Vegas sights like this were still common. So much for all the awe and wonder he had just a few moments ago.

Even the architecture took a sharp contrast from the other parts of the cities he's seen, everything looked a lot older, but that could be from all the dirt and grime. This area was filled with liquor stores, gun stores, bodegas, and tall apartment buildings.

'Stinks like a New Vegas shitter too' thought Alex

Alex noticed most of the inhabitants were the folks with animal features, even saw a few humans mixed in with the bunch.

Graffiti all over the walls, art, markings of gang territory, and words like 'Ozpin is a crook,' 'Eat my ass huntsman,' and 'Fuck 12,'

Very enlightening

"Hey, buddy! hold up!" shouted some random guy

Alex ignored him

"Hey! Wait for just a second, I wanna talk to you!" shouted the man again

Alex kept walking

"Buddy! Buddy!"

'Jesus can't this guy take a hint,' thought Alex

He then felt a hand on his shoulder, turning around Alex saw his usual Waster bum, oversized ragged coat, torn clothing, swollen red nose, grey beanie, and stunk like a septic tank

He gave Alex this shit-eating grin and a front seat view to his yellow rotting teeth.

"Personal space mean anything to you guy" gruffly responded Alex

"Hey c'mon don't act like that now, I'm just trying to be friendly and meet new faces is all, they call me Joey round here, what about you? What's your name?" said Joey

"Yeah nice meeting you Joey but I really need to get going," said Alex

"Aw don't be like that now, how bout I buy you a drink! I know this real great titty bar a few blocks from here c'mon wadda ya say?" said Joey the Bum

"I don't even think you're in a financial position to be making such generous decisions," said Alex

"Nah don't worry about it I know the guy who runs it, I'm their best customer, they wouldn't mind giving us a few drinks on the house c'mon wadda ya say," said Joey

"No really it's fine," said Alex

"Aw c'mon don't tell me you're on the straight and narrow," said Joey

"Listen, guy, I'm not that interested in what you have to say or your titty bars, so let's leave it at that and go our separate ways," said Alex

"C'mon c'mon! Just a couple of drinks!" said Joey

"Fuck off, I'm not going to say it again, I'm not interested in what you have to say, or your fucking titty bars," growled Alex

Joey raised his hands in surrender, "Okay, okay, okay, you're the boss and I can take a hint, if you ever need a drinking buddy I'll be around," Joey ran off into the night, darkness swallowing him whole.

'A lot more energetic than your usual Freeside mugger that's for sure, probably also a cue for a change of clothes' thought Alex.

The checkered jacket did make him stand out, thankfully he wasn't wearing any jewelry or else that confrontation would have taken a turn for the worst. There were a lot of things Alex would have to do tomorrow in order to blend in properly.

Alex continued to walk the streets in search of a place to stay, the occasional prostitute would try to hail him over, the sounds of gunshots followed up by the squealing of tires as they made their getaway, the sounds of a jazzman practicing his standards, and he even saw a wife stabbing her husband to death

"YOU FUCKING WHORE!" the man screeched out

He grabbed her by the throat and strangled her, wringing her throat like a wet towel, she was going from red to blue from how hard she was being suffocated. His anger was so great he didn't even feel his wife stabbing him.

She stabbed him repeatedly in the stomach and the throat.

Eventually, though he started to slow down finally succumbing to his wounds and collapsed, the woman gasped for air rubbing her throat where his hands used to be, she was covered in blood, her face bloodied from her husband's blood spurting from his throat. She ran off into the night. The man lay flat on his back in a pool of blood, death by a thousand cuts you could say

Nobody checked on him

Finally, Alex came upon a dump with a 'FOR-RENT' sign, it simply said to contact the landlord Stacy inside, apartment number one. By the time Alex showed up it was already 9:30.

The apartment was located across from a liquor store and a few blocks away from Rue street.

Walking into the apartment complex he walked straight then made a right, facing apartment number one, rats ran rampant, dirt and grime covered almost every surface, and the lights occasionally flickered on and off.

'I've seen Fiend dens cleaner than this' thought Alex

Knocking on the door, Alex waited a few seconds, then he heard the clomping of a boot or platform shoe, it would stop then continue, then again, and again

Finally, the door swung open and he was greeted with a horrific sight. The landlady was a short pudgy old woman, pink rollers in hair, droopy tits hanging from her pink nightgown, and her face was more akin to that of a bulldog

"Yeah, the hell do ya want," uttered the woman, her voice was that of a heavy smoker

"Uh…I saw the for-rent sign and was wondering if the room is still available," said Alex

"Oh yeah, it is, I'll show around you around, follow me." Said Stacy

Alex followed her up the steps it was on the 6th floor of the complex, apartment number 23. Took them ages to get there, Stacy kept blaming her bad foot and stopped every 4 steps. When they finally reached the door, Stacy fumbled around with her collection of keys causing a major ruckus of jingling. Stacy found the right key and began unlocking the door

"Little tip, you gotta push the door towards ya when opening the door, anyway here's the place," said Stacy

It was small, very small, there was a couch that took up quite a bit of space, to the left of the couch there was a door leading to a Bathroom. To the right of Alex, there was another small room, it just had a sink, a counter, and a few cabinets. In the center there were two windows covered with muck and grease, at least they had shades.

The apartment was rampant with roaches and mice

'What a fucking dump' thought Alex

"It's 300 Lien a month, it includes electricity and running water, I'll even throw in the couch, but if you decide to throw it out it'll cost ya extra, there's no paperwork and you can move in right now, just don't cause a fucking ruckus," said Stacy

"It'll have to do, here," said Alex handing her the money

"Alright here's your key," said Stacy

With that out of the way, the landlady left Alex to his own devices shutting the door on her way out. With hands-on his hips and a raised eyebrow Alex looked around the shithole that was his new apartment.

'I've slept in worse, but I'd still prefer the Lucky 38,' thought Alex

He'd eventually move out to somewhere much nicer once he had his forged documents, but for now this will have to do. Alex began de-materializing items like canned food, toiletries, water, and other commodities to make his stay a little more comfortable.

After Alex was finished getting situated, he decided it was time to go out to get some drinks, he'd get a nice buzz, lounge around, then head home. He'd try his luck at that club he heard about earlier in the day, it wasn't exactly like Alex had that many choices to begin with considering his current predicament, he'd also rather save his reserve moonshine for special occasions.

Today's been a shitty day for Alex, what was supposed to be a simple milk run turned into operation shitstorm within a matter of minutes. So, he felt he deserved a little break along with getting to know the locals.

After walking a bit on Rue street Alex found Juniors bar as he approached the doors of the nightclub, he could hear muffled music, there was no bouncer at the front door not even a line of people waiting to get in

There was a moment of hesitation, it could some type of set up to lure young people into some sort of sick scheme, or it could just be some sort of cultural difference he didn't know about

Either way Alex decided to go out on a limb and enter the club, he walked down a dark, hallway with graffiti plastered all over, and then entered through another set of double doors.

He was immediately hit with the sound of blaring electronic music and strobing lights.

It made Alex cringe, sounded like nonsense made manifest. Reminded him of that shit NCR art students would play when they'd take over a club for a night, but that was Lo-Fi and avant-garde, this was just a horrible and loud dance music

He was always more of a punk guy himself

After having his old geezer moment, he approached the bar making observations of the club as he did so.

He took notice of the strobing glass pillars and holographic trees. People dancing in the center, flailing around and grinding on each other. Men dressed in sharp black and red suits, they looked like mobsters. Alex decided to just keep his down and find a quiet corner to drink, he'd rather not accidently chat up some mob boss's daughter and have a crime organization coming after his ass.

Alex rested his hands on the bar counter he signaled over the bartender

"What can I get for you," said the Bartender

"Let me just get a bottle of the strongest whiskey you got," said Alex

"Sure thing, you'll have to pay upfront though we don't do bar tabs anymore," said the Bartender.

Forking over the lien, Alex took his bottle of Glady's Vacuan Malt Whiskey and found a relatively quiet corner, from his booth he got a good view of the club. It was hard trying to tune out the sound of blaring electronic music, so he settled on making color commentary on the club goers.

The clothing here in the club was a lot more abrasive than on the streets and the mall. Lots of skimpy clothing and dudes with button-ups, gelled up hair, and shitty cologne. The booths next to him are where people would come to do a line of coke then head back out onto the dance floor.

For some reason, it wasn't livelier here, but he wasn't complaining.

As time passed, Alex noticed a man walking into the club, he was wearing a bowler hat, spiffy suit, orange hair, and long bangs covering his right eye. He had this stupid smirk that reminded him of Benny.

The man strutted over to some big burly guy, most likely Junior the owner of the club, and some girls with bored looks on their faces.

Junior and the man talked for a while, but Junior started getting frustrated, making motions that he needed money or more of it. They went back and forth but finally, orange hair dude relented and handed Junior an envelope, briskly walking away

Another person was walking over to Junior now, long blonde hair, young 17 or 18, had a nice rack on her

The bimbo walked over, Junior motioned his girls to beat it, Blondie ordered a drink and started chatting up Junior, he wasn't having it though, clearly still irritated from the previous conversation.

Blondie wasn't having any of it either, evident by the act of putting his balls in a vice grip

Alex flinched and covered his care package

Immediately Juniors men began encircling blondie and Junior

'Shit's about to hit the fan' thought Alex

Alex pulled out A Light Shining in Darkness, hiding it under his table, he wasn't going to help the blonde, it was her dumbass that got herself in that situation he was just getting ready in case he needed to bug out.

The girl shoved a scroll in front of Juniors face asking about something, Blondie didn't the answer he gave her and squeezed tighter.

He swears he could see Junior's eyes bulge out of his sockets.

Juniors men finished their encirclement, there was thirty of them

'Sorry kid, but you grabbed the wrong pair of nuts,' thought Alex

She was smiling and confident that she's still in control of the situation

Finally, Blondie let go, Junior let out a sigh of relief, but his attitude quickly changed into one of anger. Grabbing his red-tinted shades, Junior and his goons escorted Blondie out

She stopped them short and said something to Junior that made him smile like an idiot

He puckered his lips, leaning in for a kiss

'Oh, this fucking nimrod,' thought Alex

Junior was about to kiss a potentially underaged girl, guess Blondie wanted to see this fucker in court too.

Before Junior could finish going in for the kiss, Blondie punched Junior and sent him flying into one of the glass pillars.

'HOLY FUCKING SHIT' panicked Alex

The glass shattered all over the crowd near the pillar, large chunks of glass cut people giving them nasty cuts all over their bodies, one man was looking up and had glass shattered all over his eyes blinding him.

All around people screamed and ran for the club exits

Juniors goons converge on Blondie with pistols and machetes

Blondie activated some type of weapon from what her bracelets were and engaged the thugs

And Alex was silently drinking

What? Sure people were getting hurt and he was little panicked but it wasn't his fight, besides he'd rather not use his Pip-Boy in public, then restrain her and stick around for the police to come, he did, after all, shoot a mall cop in the knees earlier today.

Blondie was doing kicks, somersaults, backflips, and fucking jumping jacks. Honestly, he hasn't seen this much showy fighting since those two drug addicts in Westside tried to rob him.

It seemed to be working on these mooks so he won't knock on her too hard, but it'd be appreciated if she could hurry it up, he was running dry.

DJ with the bear mascot bask pulled out a Tommy gun of all things and unloaded onto her, she ducked and weaved the bullets, it made Alex's face scrunch a bit, those bullets seemed like they were moving just a little too slow.

Blondie leaped and smashed bear dudes face onto the control board and threw him off.

'Jesus, where's the police, I'm dry' mourned Alex

In walked the two girls that were with Junior, they also started going at it with Blondie.

'Who fights in high heels? Dresses too, seriously?' thought Alex

He just shook his head in disbelief, this place was getting weirder and weirder every second he spent here, he heavily considered pulling out the super mutant hooch.

The twins were making Blondie sweat putting the hurt on her, there was some type force field that prevented them from getting too fucked up, Alex didn't know how to explain it but they shouldn't even be able to do all this wacky shit they're doing

Blondie started gaining the upper hand kicking the red out of the fight, literally. Now Blondie and the other twin started tap dancing and break dancing or whatever the fuck.

Blondie kicked that bitch in the face and took her out of the fight.

Things seemed to be winding down, so Alex got up to get another drink

Then Junior jumped back into a fight with a missile launcher, Alex sat back down

The launcher shot multiple missiles, they all missed, and it didn't even do any damage to the club. Like any actual RPG would.

'Should get a refund on his ammo, brother was sold crap,' thought Alex

Junior transformed his launcher into an oversized baseball bat and lunged at her.

Wait a second

Missile launcher? Transformed? To a baseball bat?

'Fuck this place' thought Alex rubbing his temples

Somewhere along the way, Junior managed to rip off a lock of hair he tried to grab Blondie by the hair, kind of a bitch move in Alex's opinion.

Blondie seemed to agree because she flared up, literally, in anger causing another major shockwave, wither her hair ablaze she rushed junior in an amazing display of speed

She punched Junior square in the jaw, sending him flying out the window, Blondie followed soon after leaping out of the club.

That was that nothing left but shattered glass and broken bones. Juniors goons nursed their wounds or were unconscious, one guy was slump on the ground dead, he hit his neck on a railing when he was sent flying from Blondies first shockwave, didn't seem to have that magic crap his other buddies had.

This crazy bitch came in, threatened the owner, trashed the place, injuring dozens, and caused untold amounts of Pandemonium just because she couldn't find what she was looking for.

Unbelievable.

She had better hope her daddy is loaded with cash because he can already smell the lawsuits coming from a mile away.

There was also the fact that she trashed what was most likely a mob-owned club so there's bound to be a hit out on her soon.

From what he saw the kid was way to use to charging in like a bull and getting her way, it didn't help that most of the goons just charged at her like some over-zealous legionnaire. It confused him to no end, they had guns, why didn't they take cover and use them? But what'd he expect from mobsters with magical force fields.

For now, Alex decided it was time to cash out, cops seemed slow today but he didn't want to take any chances, on his way out he reached over and grabbed the fanciest looking wine they had and left some lien on the counter.

Alex turned around and addressed the goons moaning in pain

"Enjoy your piss everyone. Goodbye," said Alex

Alex chuckled, he's always wanted to say that

Today was eventful for Alex, hectic as all hell too. He'd be spending a good while here, wherever the hell here is. Tomorrow was when he'd hit the books and keep himself in the loop of things around here.

Walking out of the club, Alex looked up at the night sky, do some stargazing before he headed home

Only to see a half shattered moon

"Holy shit,"

**AN: I'm basing this off my TTW playthrough, I had mods like Weapons of the New Millenia, and Project Nevada installed. The Lone Courier won't be going to beacon since he's already 25 and much too old for Beacon. He'll still have some interactions with the main characters, but I don't plan on him being held hostage at Beacon. I thought about posting a list of the Lone Couriers stats and gear but ultimately decided against it, I rather use up that space and word count to progress the story. I already have in mind what kind of gear he has so don't worry about him pulling too much stuff out of his ass. **

**EDIT: Sorry I didn't mean to pull a Kanye, but the moon slipped my mind and as I was writing the third chapter I was like "Oh Shit! The Moon!" I'd figure that would be a pretty important and obvious indicator to Alex that he wasn't on Earth anymore. I also apologize for cheaply tacking it on at the last minute.**


	3. Chapter 3

**The Great Pretender**

Rays of morning sunlight crept through the blinds of Alex's apartment windows.

Sounds permeated all throughout the late summer air as Vale awakes from its slumber.

The sounds of birds chirping, rats scattering from sunlight, the homeless joyfully farted, and an unemployed mailman snoring blissfully.

Alex slept like a log that night, too tired from yesterday's events to have nightmares. He laid sprawled out on the couch, legs dangling from the edges, drooling and still clutching a bottle of wine.

Total bliss.

Until the sound of a squeaky bed and loud moaning awoke him.

Alex groggily got up from the couch, slowly making his way to where the sound was coming from.

"Hey! Keep it down in there!" yelled Alex as he banged on the wall.

They did, but only slightly.

Sitting back down he rubbed his eyes

The apartment reminded him of his time in Freeside when he was running errands for the King and collecting money to get on the Strip. Alex was loaded but he could never carry around all his caps before his Pip-Boy was pimped out, he instead stored it in several locations of D.C. and New Vegas, grabbing it only if he ever needed the money.

When he reached Freeside in his pursuit of Benny, he barely had a cap to his name. He instead had to run odd jobs for various people in Freeside such as the Garrets or the Kings, even then he could only afford a dinky little apartment a few minutes from old Mormon Fort.

That was a rough time for Alex, it was all a daze of booze, women, and anger. After his father's death that's all he could remember, the daze, he lashed out at a lot of good people, people that tried their best to help Alex, but he turned his back on them. Some of those people he would never get the chance to apologize too ever again, that hurt Alex more than any bullet wound or super mutant sucker punch. It was the fact that he could never say sorry, never get the closure he desperately needed that seared his soul.

'Goddamnit, this place is making me angsty,' though Alex

It was his go-to response whenever he was in one location for too long.

Suppressing his feelings, for now, he focused his mind on more pressing concerns.

Alex was back to square one in terms of finances, sure he managed to hit a few good scores yesterday, but he wasn't planning on being a petty thief for the remainder of his stay here.

He didn't have any gold bars; those sons of bitches were heavy, and he kept those specifically to finance particularly ambitious company projects.

What he needed was some good honest work.

Not necessarily honest or even morally 'good' work, but simply work.

Alex thought about getting back into contracting work, it was after all what he did best before starting the company.

Besides fighting in major Wasteland wars, he also did private security for local leaders throughout the wastes and important NCR personnel such as senators or Brahmin Barons. Alex also trained military personnel like the Misfits or even the Colorado resistance fighters with the help of some Hoplon Operators.

The problem was that contracting involved a lot of word of mouth, there was also the fact that he never served in any armed services on this world or on Earth. Even if he forged documents it would cause people to look too deeply into his background, they'd want references, people to vouch for him.

He was also back to square one in this regard, not having the repertoire here to do the big money contractor work. Instead, he'd most likely have to do security work for a little, he'd avoid looking for work at the mall.

'Maybe I'm overthinking this,' thought Alex 'I mean shit, NCR let that moron Little Buster run around for a while,'

Vale isn't in the NCR though.

With a frustrated sigh Alex got a shower in and did his morning grooming rituals.

'I'll figure something out, it isn't the end of the world,' thought Alex.

Getting dressed he had laid out a pair of blue jeans, a white t-shirt, and a brown bomber jacket the previous night. Benny's suit was little too loud in this part of the city, thankfully he kept an extra set of clothes in case he was ever far from home and in a civilian setting. He kept the black leather boots with the street clothes though, they're sturdy and look nice.

He'd head over to the library today, hopefully, he'll be able to make sense of all the terms and place names he heard yesterday.

Alex grabbed a pair of cigarettes from the counter and his backpack containing his Pip-Boy, he wasn't comfortable leaving it here just yet. Hell, he wasn't comfortable having it off for this long.

Lighting a cigarette as he walked out of his apartment, he walked across the street to the liquor store, on his way home last night he noticed there was a restaurant in the back that served breakfast and lunch. He'd have a quick breakfast before leaving.

Ordering an omelet and some coffee, Alex took a seat in one of the booths. As he ate he watched the boxy T.V. that was set up on the top right corner of the restaurant, the news was on apparently, there was a terrorist attack at the Schnee Dust company offices yesterday, some group called the White Fang started holding employees hostage, it involved deployment of SWAT teams and VAIG units. Police locked down the area and were busy responding to smaller White Fang attacks.

'Well that explains why the police was a no show at the mall and all the sirens,' thought Alex

On a side note, Alex thought the Schnee Dust Company and White Fang were apart of some sort of large cocaine conspiracy.

'White Dust companies, White Fang. Jesus, it's the war on drugs and terror,' thought Alex

There were no mentions of his exploits at the mall, which he was grateful for but he would still keep his Pip-Boy hidden for a little while longer, it'd be an uncomfortable situation if he was recognized out on the streets as the guy who dropped in from nowhere and shot a man in the knees.

There was also no mention of Juniors club that Blondie trashed last night.

'That's strange,' thought Alex

Despite yesterday being a hectic day for law enforcement that shouldn't have stopped the news from jumping all over these stories. Somebody must of went to the media with a scoop. Something was afoot it gave Alex this tingly feeling, it usually meant somebody, or something still had few skeletons in their closets.

Alex pushed those thoughts to far corners of his mind for now, he finished his breakfast and begrudgingly left a tip. Living in a vault you'd never really learned about tipping, there wasn't really many places to get food from anyways. He learned not tipping was frowned upon in the Wasteland, a carryover from Pre-War American culture, he learned that the hard way when his favorite dinner in Rivet City refused to serve him because he never left a tip.

'They're still assholes for that,' thought Alex 'offered to pay double too,'

Making his way to the Vale Downtown Library he used his map and would occasionally get directions from the random passerby.

It was a large building with Greco-Roman Architecture and some modern influences, it looked eerily like the Pantheon. If members of Caesars Legion saw this, they'd probably start moaning in ecstasy.

Walking in, Alex was greeted with the sight of rows upon rows of books.

'Holy shit, this is amazing,' thought Alex

It made him feel a little giddy and a little overwhelmed

He wasn't a book worm per se, but he was excited to vast arrays of books. NCR had libraries but they were never this big and a lot of it is from when the Followers of the Apocalypse was still working closely with the NCR. Even groups like the Brotherhood, who have massive digital libraries, would quite literally kill to gain ahold of these books.

Many ignored him, occasionally someone would notice his rugged features or scars but for the most part, they left him alone.

Alex got to work, he perused the history section of the library and other genres to round out his knowledge of Vales history and culture.

He ate up a lot of the books learning this worlds history, he learned of the Great war, he learned of the Faunus, Dust, The CCT networks, Government, Aura, Huntsman, Grimm. A lot of it was just general history he wasn't analyzing every battle of the Great war for example.

Alex got a real hoot and holler when he read that the year is 1086 signifying the founding of Vale as a settlement and strangely enough, they had the same days and months named as it is on Earth.

There were things that still confused him such as Aura, from what he read it sounded like a bunch of hippie mumbo jumbo, even the authors of the books weren't exactly sure what Aura is. They kept saying it was the soul, and while Alex did consider himself a little superstitious, he still thought what he read was brahmin shit.

'Bet they have Aura massage parlors here, they're happy endings are a spiritual hand job,' thought Alex.

But enough people seem to buy into it, from what he's read it certainly explained why Blondie was able to tank hits or Junior was able to survive crashing into a giant glass pillar. Did fuck all against chemical attacks.

Dust also wasn't the most reliable or powerful of substances, does come in a variety of flavors giving it a slight advantage over regular gunpowder it's also much more versatile. Gunpowder does exist here but it's a very obscure substance that was mentioned in one sentence of a book pertaining to Dust.

Semblances are what basically grants people superpowers and it was either unique to each person or hereditary. The lack of consistency hurt Alex's brain.

You couldn't even have an Aura without having some sort of permit or being a Huntsman or Huntsman in training. It was something of a new law since insurrectionists in southern Vale kept sprouting up and the White Fangs been ramping up attacks. Alex was sure that you could still have someone unlock it for you under the table after all those goons at Junior's had Aura.

On a side note, Alex read that the far south of Vale, Kote Sekirite, is very culturally different from the Capital and it's surrounding regions. They spoke Haitian Creole or at least something very similar, it has a mixed population of Humans and a slightly higher Faunus one, the reason for the high Faunus population is that in the old days of slavery, slaves would often hide in Kote Sekirite thick forests, thus the name. Also, when the Faunus received Menagerie as reparations after the Great War, a lot of them thought it was an overcrowded dump, so they moved in with their cooler older brother.

Kote Sekirite isn't recognized as a nation by other Kingdoms despite having its own government, currency, and military. From what he's read even some famous Huntsman were from Kote Sekirite.

Speaking of Huntsman, they unsettled Alex quite a bit.

Huntsman are the rocks stars of this world and are basically glorified mercenaries since they operated separately from the kingdoms.

They reminded Alex of the Landsknechts of his world, extravagant clothing, and extravagant personalities. Becoming a Huntsman is similar to becoming a member of the Eastern Brotherhood of Steel, albeit much laxer, you were either born into it or you had a sponsor that would vouch for your entrance to an academy or primary combat school.

Unfortunately, this sprouted something of a neo-feudalistic society, while Huntsman are mercenaries, they're super-powered mercenaries. They have whole bloodlines that could trace their heritage back to the Great War and they exert considerable amounts of influence over the governments of this world. They could, and often do, barge into police or military operations overriding any and all commands.

It'd explain why the militaries of this world were severely kneecapped except for Atlas, Vale had its army downsized and integrated into the Law enforcement being branded as the Vale Army Intervention Group, like the GIGN of pre-war France. Other Kingdoms had no militaries and instead relied on their own Huntsman or Atlas to come to their defense.

It'd also explain why Huntsman or possible Huntsman incidents are kept quiet, keep on trudging along with the status quo and with the Grimm being attracted to negative emotions he understood why it's preferred.

Alex was incredulous when reading this info from authors praising the Huntsman and often harshly critiquing Atlas for keeping their 'antiquated military' as well as mocking VAIG units.

'Fucking nimrods,' thought Alex

Don't get Alex wrong though, the Wasteland is a good example of the aftermath of a massive military-industrial complex getting out of hand along with some corporate greed, but considering all the Grimm that still prowled outside the walls he'd expect a more militarized society.

Alex rubbed his face, he'd rather have been dumped on an island full of beach blondes and sweet, sweet liquor. Instead, he was dumped into a society with its own slew of complex issues that he'd have to try dodge, for any normal person it would have been easy, just keep your head down and your mouth shut, but for Alex that was like trying to dance Salsa with a Deathclaw. He'd get drag into someone else's bullshit like always. Its what he does best.

After his rundown of the basics of Remnant, he picked a secluded corner to do some good old hacking. He fiddled around with the internet and the computer to get a feel for it, it was little different from what he's used but if he could manage to figure some of the most complex technologies in the Wasteland, then he could figure out how a Remnant computer worked.

After learning about the CCT and by extension the internet, he was excited that he could cut out the middleman of having someone make forgeries for him.

He cracked open the metaphorical windows of the government and slid himself into existence.

He made some stuff up about his parents owning a minor and now-defunct company, being orphaned at a young age, which was sadly true, and left him a few of the company's experimental technologies as an inheritance.

It'd explain some of his gear like his Pip-Boy.

It also explains why he's flat broke.

With that out of the way he now had the arduous task of jumping some hoops of Vale's bureaucracy, he did, after all, put himself down as being 25.

Now he had to obtain copies of the paperwork that he forged and grab his ID.

After making a few bribes and wiggling of his eyebrows he'd manage to acquire all the things he needed to prove he existed here.

It did put him in a few awkward situations here and there, but he pulled through. It also dented his finances down from 950 Lien to 540 Lien. He'd need work soon.

So here he was, a Bonafide and proud citizen of Vale. It was a boring but educational day, he was much more of his current situation, certain things like Aura and Dust still tripped him up but if he smiles and nods, he'll be alright.

He even acquired a new scroll, that he tactically acquired from an unaware citizen, he'd mess around with it when he got home.

On his way home he took notice that it was getting overcast, he stopped by a mini market to grab some bread and jelly, he'd also use the plastic bag to protect his paperwork from getting wet.

Exiting the mini market, it was beginning to drizzle a bit.

Another little curious fact about Vale is that the area he was currently living is called 'The Sewers'

Appropriate.

"Hey! Buddy!"

'Oh, Jesus, not this clown again,'

Alex turned around and instantly regretted it

There was Joey again walking over to Alex with the same shit-eating grin and the same greasy long hair.

"Hey Buddy, how's it been!" said Joey

"It's been good, now fuck off," said Alex

"C'mon you don't have to be rude now! I even have a little surprise for you," said Joey

In the Wasteland that meant they either wanted to show you their dick or want you to follow them into an alley where you'd get mugged.

Alex sighed "Look I'm not interested pal, really,"

"No, no, c'mon look!" said Joey

Alex didn't know what compelled him, but he looked, he was basically asking for his eyes to be seared at the sight of a homeless man's penis.

But that's not what he saw

Instead, it was a necklace, a necklace with a wooden carving of a bear.

Was that Yews bear charm?

Upon closer inspection he noticed that it was indeed the same charm, taking notice of all the nicks and lumps of the wooden bear.

His eyes nearly popped out of their sockets.

He thought he'd lost it forever, he threw it somewhere in Big MT in a drunken rage, during that time he wanted to leave D.C. behind and any relics of his past would get him moody, then he'd start drinking, then he'd get angry and start throwing things around mumbling to himself.

With the encouragement of Boone and Veronica he returned to D.C. a few years ago, while he was there, he learned that Yew was inspired by his adventures in D.C. and left Oasis at the age of 15 to venture the wastes. She died defending a town from raiders.

"Where did you get that," said Alex stepping in to take the necklace.

"Hey not so fast buddy," said Joey quickly stuffing the charm back into his coat.

Alex was pissed off beyond belief, he wanted to punch that fucker right in his swollen red nose, he started shaking in anger.

Before Alex could say anything, Joey spoke

"Look, I know this probably means a lot to you but all I'm asking is for a drink with you, we have something of a little community here in The Sewers and I've taken it upon myself to vet out newcomers, so all I'm asking is I'd like to get to know you," said Joey losing his usual smile.

Alex was taken aback, admittedly he also felt a little bad for acting like an asshole, only a little though, if some bum rushes up trying to take you to a titty bar, you'd be suspicious and gruff as well.

"Yeah, well, some community you have here, saw a couple trying to kill each other last night," said Alex

"Eh, we all have our character flaws," said Joey

"Hmph, sure,' said Alex

Alex paused; rain was starting to fall a little harder. he hoped he doesn't come to regret his next decision.

"Ah, sure why not, I'll have a drink with you," said Alex

"That's more like it! C'mon it's not too far from here," said Joey adopting his smile again

Entering the strip club, the first thing Alex noticed was the smell of sweaty feet.

Turning to Joey Alex looked at him with a deadpan stare and said

"It reeks," said Alex, he felt bad for being an asshole to Joey earlier, but he wasn't planning on giving him bullshit either.

Joey took it in good humor and chuckling said "Hah! Sorry, this ain't the 5-star brothel you've been looking for,"

Music was playing in the background as a stripper danced to the music, the music was synth-y and slow, made the stripper look corny and lame but hey blame whoever is playing the music.

They took a seat at the bar ordering their drinks from a topless Faunus woman, Alex wasn't really paying attention to the woman, oh sure some of them were beautiful but he was put off by the stench, he was also engaged in a conversation currently.

"I never got your name," said Joey

"It's Alex…Alex Guerrero," said Alex

"So, Alex Guerrero, what brings you to this part of our illustrious city?" asked Joey

"Just came in from Vacuo, did some contracting work, and right now I'm kinda in between jobs," said Alex

They went back and forth getting to know each other, turns out Joey was also a merc back in his youth, he did some stints with the Atlesian military and guarded some big wig chief over in Menagerie for a little while, as to why he was homeless in the first place… well, they didn't know each other quite that well.

The beers didn't do anything for him, he was just keeping pace with the old-timer, but he wasn't that bad he was even sharing a few laughs with him. Alex had to change up some of his stories of course or embellish a little for things to make sense, it was a bit of dance that he had to do and some praying. Alex would be vague about locations and even throw in a few place names like Goodsprings, thankfully Joey wasn't too inquisitive and even seemed to enjoy some of his tales in 'Vacuo' even if he thought it was just big talk.

Occasionally one of the strippers would walk by and Joey would try to woo a damsel but then bumble over his words and say something like 'and oh how your ass glitters in the moonlight' and other lewd comments.

Usually, though they would come to talk with Alex, he looked a lot better than Joey but was a little more than distant with people.

It made Joey laugh his ass off

"Woah! Watch out their lady killer, you'll talk the girls to death," said Joey

Alex was talking how he normally talks with strangers, friendly but brief, he'd only go on long-winded rants with close friends. If wanted to get into someone's pants he'd just go see a lady of the night.

"Not for a lack of trying, problem is that you folk consider it aloof," replied Alex

Which is common for Wasteland adventurers, didn't really talk much, but hang around for a while, share the struggle alongside them and they'll be your most stalwart friends.

Joey kept laughing taking another swig of his beer.

Alex heard the door swing open, somebody was rushing in and sobbing. Joey and the other inhabitants didn't have the same enhanced hearing that Alex had, even before the cybernetics he's always had something of a great perception of his environment.

In comes this lady, her sobbing more audible, Joey sees her before he hears her, but he can tell something is wrong immediately.

"Hey Iris, what's going on?" Joey asked.

"Oh my gods Joey I've been looking all over for you," said Iris.

Her eyes were bloodshot from crying, sadness and fear were evident in her eyes.

"What happened? What happened?" asked Joey.

"They took my boy! They took my baby boy and my sister!" said Iris.

The strip club-goers were shooting looks over in their direction wondering what all the ruckus is all about.

"Calm down, Iris, calm down, who took them?" responded Joey trying to keep from freaking out.

"The White Fang! The fucking White Fang! They took my boy! My sister!" screamed Iris.

There was a rustling in the club, bringing up the Fang in this part of town was like invoking the name of the Burned Man in Legion territory.

One of the Faunus bouncers came up to them, older lupine feller, there was certain understanding and empathy in his eyes.

"Hey, if you need to talk about it go in the back please," said the bouncer.

Joey, comforting Iris rubbing her back, simply nodded.

It was strange seeing this much compassion, especially in a strip club, back in Vegas they would have been told to get the fuck out with their bullshit.

'These Vale folk sure are strange,' thought Alex

Joey did say they're a community, never expected them to be all hugging and supporting.

"Alright Iris lets go, oh, and Alex I know it isn't any of your business, but I'd appreciate it if you came with us," said Joey

It wasn't any of his business, but he's been getting that itch on his ass since Iris walked in, it was a nervous tick that'd cause him to do some dumb shit in the past, but it'd drive him mad if he didn't do something and he was never one to rest on his laurels.

"Um…yeah, sure," said Alex.

"Ya don't have to if you don't want to," said Joey.

"No, no, I'll go with you," said Alex.

They walked to the back of the club towards the security room.

Once they got into the room Joey sat Iris down.

"I'm sorry Joey, I'm really sorry," said Iris her voice weak.

"Nah, don't worry about it, it's fine, but tell me what's going on? How'd Reggie and Bonny get mixed up in this?" asked Joey.

"Well," Iris cleaned herself up a bit, a bouncer passed her a box of tissues "Reggie was getting bullied by this Faunus boy at school and Reggie is a good boy you know that, but he'd be getting bullied by this Faunus boy and the boy would say mean things to him like calling him 'Human trash' and other horrible things,"

Iris took a moment to collect herself.

"Sorry," said Iris.

"Don't worry," said Joey "take all the time you need,"

"Um… well, he at first he would just ignore him, but it started getting worse, the boy would start getting physical with him, and one day he came back with bruises and he refused to answer to who was doing it, finally after sitting down with him, he told me everything. The next day I went with him to school and talked to the principal and he gave the boy after school detention for the rest of the month. That only made the boy more aggressive, and he ended up fighting Reggie, but Reggie beat him up and the boy said he was going to 'go get his brothers and deal with him' after that they both got suspended and a few days go by and nothing happens,"

Iris starts tearing up again

"Then I get a phone call from Bonny, I pick up the phone and I hear a man's voice, he says that he's got my boy and my sister at her house and that they want 5,000 liens by tomorrow morning, and he said that if police show up they'll kill them,'

Iris cries, gasping for air in between.

Joey rubs her back telling her that 'it's gonna be okay,'

"I-I don't know what to do I don't have 5,000 Lien, Joey what am I'm gonna do I-I-I…" stuttered Iris, sounding defeated.

"Hey, don't worry about it, we'll round up some ransom money from the folk around the neighborhood don't worry," said Joey

Joey sounded a lot softer and fatherly than his usual attitude; it was a nice change of pace from the waster bum trying to frisk you persona.

Guess everyone's got a soft side.

While it shouldn't be any of his concern, that itch on his ass was raging up again. It was his ass tick mixed in with this self-righteous attitude he developed when he ventured out into the wastes for the first time, thinking he could save the world.

Alex was also wary, it was always situations like this, the small little dilemmas that broke the Brahmins back. It'd open the floodgates and drag him into a major and complex conflict between warring factions when it happens to you enough times you start getting superstitious. Hell, he might have already broken the Brahmins back just by existing here.

He hadn't planned on playing hero for these people, he just needs some cash to cover his traveling expenses. All he needed was one good score and he'd leave this place forever; the Wasteland had its own sets of troubles and he'd rather not be invested in the affairs of folks here.

Or so he told himself.

In truth, he was a big sucker for people that needed helping, if they had everything then they had everything under control. Joey and Iris were already making plans as to who they were going to ask for help. He'd rather not see these folks get conned from a couple of terrorists. Then again, they could just be some hooligans planning on scaring this poor lady and her family, but he did read that White Fang often splinter off and do petty shit like this all the time to grab some quick cash.

With all this in mind only one thing popped into his head.

'Fuck it'

Clasping Joey on the shoulder Alex said, "Don't worry about the ransom Joey, I'll get Reggie and Bonny back,"

"Huh? You're gonna go in all by yourself?" said Joey

"Yeah, like I said, don't worry, I've done crazier shit than this," said Alex

Joey had a skeptical look plastered all over his face but relented.

"Alright well whatever ya do just make sure Reggie and Bonny are okay and here the necklace," said Joey

"Thank you," said Alex

Alex got the address before departing, Iris was in too much distress to really respond and just barely managed to choke out the words. It was a 30-minute walk from the strip club, blue house, single story.

As he neared the house he went into a secluded alley, Alex slipped on his Pip-Boy and started de-materializing gear he needed for the raid.

He'd be running a much more bare-bones setup than he usually does with Hoplon Operators. He stripped off things like med-packs and other gear on the back of his multi-curved plate carrier only leaving a crowbar, he was running three 5.56 magazine pouches and a flashbang on the front of his armor. For headgear, he was using an Ops core maritime helmet with integrated comms and a balaclava, his favorite piece of gear attached to his helmet is the panoramic night vision goggle, fresh off the press. Under all his equipment he was wearing P40 all-terrain pants and a Winter combat shirt all ranger green.

His weapon of choice this time around would be the BCM AR, with Eotech, suppressor, vertical grip, and AN/PEG slapped on the right side of the barrel. Like his All-American setup with slight differences. He also had a minimalist battle belt, running a Glock 17 as his sidearm and having stimpacks and flex cuffs on his belt.

Slinging on his rifle he slowly approached the house in the cover of darkness, Faunus may have natural night vision, but Alex is very stealthy, also doesn't hurt that he's running his stealth bots.

The tricky part was that he didn't know how many bad guys were in the house or even where the hostages were being held.

Fortunately, he had just the solution.

Activating his bionic eyes his thermal vision was able to see through walls, he had to angle it just right not to get it mixed up with other heat signatures from other buildings. Again, with the redundancies but his eyes had thermal vision and they could see through walls, gave him a wicked headache after prolonged use.

He picked up 6 signatures in total, two remained still, possibly watching TV, he could hear laughter and cartoonish sounds. Another was patrolling the house checking out windows. The last three were in the furthest corner of the house, that's most likely where the hostages would be alongside a guard.

Deactivating his Thermal vision, Alex pushed down his night vision goggles and got to work.

Earl was nervous, they've never done something this high stake before. Usually, they'd just rob a store on a Thursday, steal a couple of cases of beer and call it day, but last night they got the call in from the Lieutenant, he said that since they didn't do shit yesterday to help with the Schnee hostage operation that they would have to pull in a bigger score.

Ever since Adam came to Vale shit's been ramping up, usually they'd just do some robberies, show up to protests as extra muscle, and that was it. Now that Adam and his posse are here, he's been on a warpath, he tried to start an uprising in Kote Sekirite but they kicked his ass all the way to the north, there are even rumors going around that his girlfriend bailed on him during a train heist and he's been losing it.

There were even more rumors about Adam and how he liked them young, but no one mentioned it around him if they liked keeping their head on their shoulders.

The others mulled around watching cartoons and drinking soda, Sill's little brother came to them the other day crying about some human kid beating him up, but Sill told him to stop acting like a little bitch and to beat it. With the call in though Earl and the rest of the gang decided it be best to kill two birds with one stone.

So here they are, Earl and Sill being the only ones taking this seriously, Daff and Aryl just lounging around waiting for the big payday.

*SNAP*

"Huh? Did y'all hear that?" asked Earl

"Calm down Earl it was nothing, it's gonna be an easy score, we had that bitch quivering in her boots," chuckled Daff.

"Still, I'm gonna take a gander," said Earl

"C'mon dude, even if they did send the cops, we got Aura now, we can take care of it," said Aryl.

"Still though," said Earl

"Fine, fine, go have a look if it calms you down, jeez," said Daff

Earl heard the sound coming from the bathroom, as he approached the door, he drew his pistol his heart was racing, and his palms were sweaty. He twisted the doorknob then quickly pushed the door in pointing his gun into the bathroom.

It was empty

Then he started squinting at the toilet, it looked a little distorted.

That's when he felt a knife jam into his throat completely penetrating his Aura and slicing across.

Earl choked and gurgled on his blood, panicking he dropped his gun and tried to keep the blood in his body.

His life ended with a knife to his temple.

'Lights out,' thought Alex.

He never slit someone's throat from the front before, on the account of it being extremely fucking difficult. Also, there's something deeply disturbing about staring someone in the eyes as they died. He may have killed thousands of people, but very rarely did he look them in the eyes before they died. In this case, they were covered by the terrorist's mask.

He gently laid the terrorist on the ground, Alex wiped the blood off his knife on the man's body

"Earl? You alright bud?" called out Aryl

The only response he got was an object thrown into the room followed by a *BANG*

A flash of bright white light blinded them, and a loud ringing sound disorientated them severely.

Alex rushed into the room shooting them three times in each of their heads, they went down, guess gunpowder did a hell of a walloping against Aura.

"Earl?... Daff?... Aryl?..." said Sill

He heard a lot of loud noises and gunshots.

"Hey…What's going on?"

No response.

"Anybody out there?"

Still no response.

"Who the fuck is out there!" he was starting to get nervous.

Silence.

The only thing he could hear is the pattering of rain on the rooftop.

It was driving him mad.

He grabbed the boy Reggie beside him and put a pistol to his head.

"I got hostages in here asshole! Don't try anything funny or I'll blow their fucking heads off!"

More silence.

The man grew hysterical

He threw Reggie to the side, yelling at the door

"WHO THE FUCK IS OUT THEIR,"

He got his answer when the wooden door was sent flying, knocking him down to the floor. Before he could push the door off him a series of gunshots went through the door killing him.

Kicking down doors like that was something of a party trick he learned when he first got his cybernetics.

Looking over towards the hostages Alex sheepishly said

"Sorry about your door,"

He took out their gags and the cut their ropes.

"Oh my gods, you saved us," said Bonny.

'What a cliché thing to say, the fuck is this, some shitty romance book,' thought Alex.

"Are you with the VAIG?" asked the boy.

"Uh, no. But you should exit the house and call authorities, don't look at the bodies on your way out," said Alex.

Bonny did as he told grabbing her phone and Reggie on her way, she was little more than squeamish but she tried not to think about.

Alex crept out the building and materialized into his normal street clothes.

He ran off to play hero today, he could already feel something in his gut, like he just opened the floodgates.

He took the long way home; he could already hear the sirens blaring in the background.

It rained heavily that night.

**AN: Another night, another chapter. This was originally going to be much larger but as I was writing this chapter and adding new parts in, I decided to cut off after the hostage rescue and save the rest for the next Chapter. A few things I want to mention is the gear I've described will simply be referred to as 'Hoplon Gear' from now on, I had a specific image of what it would look like but it felt a bit much explaining it in such length. Another thing I want to mention is that after chapter 5 I plan on slowing down releases to once a week because honestly I've been writing and powering through chapters from 9 pm to 7 am, so I want to take the time to fix my sleep schedule, have surplus chapters, and generally allow me to edit and clean up chapters because I notice that the chapters have been very hot off the press. Anyways I hope you have a good one. **


	4. Chapter 4

**Story Untold **

The next day Alex was up bright and early.

When he returned home the previous night, he managed to mess around with the scroll he acquired with the help of Pan. She gave Alex a lot of passive-aggressive smack talk for not using the Riot armor in a while.

He could now proudly say he had a fully functioning scroll that came with all its normal functions. Alex browsed through the CCT looking for security work and found a few job offerings.

One was an opening for a new security guard at the mall, the same mall where he shot up Polar Bear.

He passed on it for obvious reasons.

Another was an offering as a groundskeeper at Beacon, it paid good, abnormally so. Besides doing all the regular duties of a groundskeeper you had to patrol the grounds and make sure no students were engaged in 'inappropriate activities' or causing damage to school property.

Alex passed on that as well.

'Rather not be caught up in a school with a bunch of superpowered and hormonal teenagers. Plus, I don't know shit about yardwork let alone groundskeeping, they won't let just any incompetent buffoon onto the campus' thought Alex.

The one that showed the most promise was a security job at a Dust shop. From what he read it's a 24-hour Dust shop and the owner is worried since there's been a string of Dust shop robberies occurring during the weekends as of late.

The information was scant for the most part, only that he was looking for someone mean looking and as soon as possible. Pay's negotiable and he would have to work from 8 P.M. to 5 A.M.

That morning he got a reply from the owner, he said he'd like to interview Alex at 9 A.M.

After getting ready and leaving the apartment he pondered on last night's events.

'Shouldn't have got involved with those two, especially with that bum,' thought Alex, but he remembered the charm.

Pulling it out he observed it as he walked the run-down streets of the Sewers.

He didn't know the kid for long, but she was bright and cheery, had a knack for wood carving much to the dismay of the inhabitants of Oasis.

He only visited Oasis every now and again because he felt bad for them, he did, after all, kill their god.

'Not my fault they weren't paying attention to Harold's suicidal ramblings,' thought Alex.

It was a hard decision for Alex at the time, it was either he kills Harold along with the Wastelands chances of green future or spares him, allowing the Wasteland to be green once more at the cost of the suffering of another.

He killed Harold because he was idealistic and figured the Wasteland would find its own way of prospering as communities had already done.

After his time in Vault 22 killing Harold in hindsight was a pretty good idea, Oasis would continue to grow for a little time afterward, but last he heard it was beginning to slow down still covering a good chunk of the surrounding areas.

Harold was a good guy if a little senile.

He lived a hell of life, encountering two wasteland legends of the west coast. One when NCR was just a small village always on the brink of being swept up by raider tribes and the other during the rise of NCR and San Francisco.

Most of it was vague ramblings, he didn't remember a whole lot of it, it was only when he traveled to the west coast that Alex got the full story. Even saw the statue of the Vault Dweller.

There was one question that was eating up at him though.

'Where the hell did Joey get the charm? And why did he show it to me?'

Joey must have had a reason for showing him the charm figuring it would provoke a reaction out of Alex and how did it end up on Remnant in the first place?

'This shit's getting weirder and weirder,'

It also brought up another concern in Alex's mind.

'Were those fucking dorks doing experiments behind my back?'

While it would explain a lot of things it was still a bit of a stretch, as far as Alex knew he did a pretty good job of keeping the Think Tank on a leash.

In the possibility that the Think Tank tried to pull a fast one on him, he told Boone to come in with some guys, if he was gone for longer than seven days, and give the eggheads a wedgie.

By the time those seven days were up, he'd have a team trying to retrieve him if the Think Tank wasn't already. In the best-case-scenario, he'd wait a few more days and then have a team come rescue him, but the more he thought about it the more it sounded like a pipe dream.

The reality is that this was a freak accident and since he was the only one with the original MK II his chances of being retrieved looked pretty slim. If they tried teleporting it was likely they end up dead, in D.C., on the other side of Remnant, or in a completely different reality.

Alex wasn't one to sit on his ass anyways, so he'd have to get home on his own.

His plan was to make enough money to obtain a permit to operate outside the city and in villages and towns across Vale. It didn't come with the same prestige or even the same pay as a Huntsman, but it would let him get out the city for long periods of time and make more money than working security.

The only problem was that it cost 6,500 Lien to get a permit, besides that there was no real test the government just wants to see if you have the gear and the money to start working.

Alex would have to save up and balance his bills.

'Being an adult sucks,'

Alex entered the nice part of town, it's where most of the Dust shops were located.

It was strange that the robberies were getting out of hand considering that there were more cops on the beat along with patrol cars in the area than say the Sewers.

Yet they're never able to stop the robberies.

That either meant that Vale's police force is incredibly incompetent or incredibly corrupt.

Huntsman didn't seem to be doing jack shit either.

As he approached the store, he could see it's sign

'_From Dust till Dawn_'

Alex walked into the store a jingling of bells as he entered. The store looked like a Pre-war candy store but instead of candy, they were packing extremely volatile substances.

He saw an old man with white hair, slightly hunched. He was talking to a young cashier; she had a bored expression in contrast to the old men worried one.

"Hi, I'm here to see Daniel for an interview," said Alex

"Oh yes that'd be me," said the old man "let's head to my office,"

Alex followed Daniel to his office

"Take a seat, take a seat," said Daniel

"So, I only have two questions," Daniel grabbed a paper and pen to take notes "Do you have experience? And do you have your own gear?"

"I have some experience working as a contractor out in Vacuo and yes I have a full set of gear," said Alex.

"Alright well that's good…to be frank I was just looking for someone who looked tough and you fit the bill but if you could bring your whole set up, I'll throw in a bonus," said Daniel.

They went back and forth on the matter of pay, Alex managed to convince Daniel to fork over 50 lien an hour, he would only be working from Friday to Monday so after taxes and district tax he would be making 1,227 in total plus 150 lien under the table if he wore his kit for the full time he was there.

It seemed kind of high for someone just to stand there, but Alex assured Daniel if those thugs did try to rob his store, he would get his money's worth and fend off the hooligans.

Alex doubted it was hooligans though, hooligans don't just steal Dust, it must be some type of black-market operation or something big, but he didn't voice his hypothesis to Daniel.

His first night would be that night.

Alex walked home to start loading up his gear into the duffel bag he procured not too long ago. As he approached his door, he noticed that there was a note taped onto it. It was mostly chicken scratching's but once he managed to decipher it, he read that it was from Joey.

Great to have a beer with, didn't mean he liked the fact he knew where he lived.

'I gotta keep an eye on him, he has this fatherly bum act, but he's getting a little too curious about me,' thought Alex.

The note was basically Joey thanking him profusely and saying that Iris and her family were grateful as well. When the police showed Reggie and Bonny didn't provide a description of Alex claiming they couldn't get a good look at him.

Alex started de-materializing his gear, he'd bring his Hoplon operator gear and use his BCM Recce again, he unscrewed the suppressor and took off the AN/PEG, he didn't have to use night vision this time around. Alex loaded up on extra medical packs and flex cuffs in case he had to secure and treat any bad guys since police were lagging it in response time, he'd rather not have the criminals take dirt-naps at the Dust shop.

The first night was quiet if boring

'Suppose it's not that bad, the alternative would be me getting shot at,' thought Alex

Then some blonde boy walked in

Had a sword strapped to his hip, strutting in like he just won it big at the casino

'Probably a Huntsman in training,' thought Alex 'something about people here having a hard-on for melee weapons, it's like a legionnaire's wet dream. I don't even think that the sword takes Dust,'

"I would like three canisters of fire Dust please," said the boy

As Daniel went to fill up the canisters the kid kept yapping about how they're looking at a future Huntsman, that he just got accepted into Beacon, and that he was going to be a big shot Huntsman.

Then Daniel came back and gave him the bill.

His face went pale

"Uh…Uh, um…I-I think I'll come back later," and ran out the store.

Alex and Daniel looked at each other and shrugged.

Afterwork Alex would go home, get some rest, then go about his day.

Vale is a lively city with its ups and downs

Saw a lot of folks happy and smiling totally oblivious to the dangers that lurk outside the walls of Vale, not like Wasteland folk who live in that danger every single day of their lives.

He saw a crowd gathered along with paramedics and police closing off the area, there was a body splat on the ground. Alex asked around, he got curious as to what happened. Apparently, that body was a Faunus man he committed suicide by falling to his death. Lost his house a few years back when the economy crashed, wife divorced him, and he just lost his daughter to some vigilante on Thursday.

Alex quickly left the scene, he felt uncomfortable being there.

It was another quiet night, occasionally some drunk would stumble in and either Alex would kick him out or they would pass out on the floor.

Some girl with a black ribbon walked into the store and ordered a few things, she tried to look impassive, but her ribbon would twitch, and she kept shooting glances at Alex and his gun.

'Either she just saw some shit or she's tripping balls and thinks I'm a narc with a whole squad outside ready to bust her,' thought Alex.

She paid for her Dust and hauled ass out the store.

"Think she was on one Dan," said Alex

"Who knows, kids these days," grumbled Daniel

Before work Daniel would take walks in the park, usually they were infested with bums and it smelled like piss, but nobody bothered him for the most part. There weren't many parks in Vale as they already had Forever Fall, which is relatively safe if you stick to the designated hiking paths, but Alex more than anything wanted to see the what the city of Vale is like.

He could read all the books and records on the city of Vale, but it's better to see the city for himself, from his perspective.

Usually he could pick out the Huntsman from the crowds, they had flashy clothing, something to separate themselves from the rest of the commoners. It also came from the fact that they're never expected to stay hunkered down in one village or spot for too long, usually they fuck shit up then leave.

He'd also see them plastered over fashion magazines and cereal boxes.

Before heading into work the Courier six, The Lone Wanderer, Wasteland legend, killer of thousands, Vanquisher of the Legion, Monster of the West, someone that's witnessed countless horrors of man and nature again and again

Walked into a bakery.

He never had chocolate chip cookies.

Alex saw some pipsqueak with black and red-tipped hair in the store eating an ungodly number of cookies and at an ungodly speed, it was making him sweat a little.

'I need to order my shit and leave, I don't wanna be here when she implodes,' thought Alex.

That night was turning out to be another boring one

Were it not at the insistence of Daniel as well as the extra pay that was hovering over his eyes, Alex wouldn't have brought his gear in this night.

Around 9:30 he saw the same pipsqueak from earlier in the day.

Daniel was greeting her all excited to see her, guess she was a regular.

Alex took notice of the boxy object on her lower back.

'Probably a Huntress or Huntsman in training or whatever the fuck it is,' thought Alex

Daniel went to the back of the store to grab a shipment for the girl, she meandered around looking at the Dust or the various gun magazines listening to music as she did so.

Then she took notice of Alex and by extension his BCM, there was a sparkle in her eyes, she wanted to approach Alex but didn't really know how to. She fiddled around with some more magazines before working up the courage to walk up to Alex.

"Oh um… Hi! I noticed your weapon and I wanted to ask you about it since it looks kinda strange and I'm something of a gun nut and I like seeing new guns because it's like meeting new people and I'm pretty familiar with a lot of weapon types I even made my own gun and did you make your own gun? Because it looks different from what I'm used to seeing, it looks kinda like…"

Alex put his hands up, motioning for her to calm down

"Woah, Woah settle down kid one thing at a time," Said Alex

"Sorry…" she sheepishly said

"No worries but we should start with introductions I'm Alex,"

"I'm Ruby,"

Alex stuck his hand out for a handshake, it startled Ruby a little, she was still eyeing his rifle.

'What's up with this damn kid and my gun, sure it looks out of place, but there's also all those shape-shifting fucking swiss knife guns going around,' thought Alex

"But to answer your question it's a BCM Recce 16 and it looks kind of strange because it's an AR platform gun,"

A lot of guns on Remnant were usually blocky, there were exceptions to this but for the most part it's usually companies outside of Atlas copying Atlesian designs then selling dirt cheap on the market

"It's chambered for 5.56," continued Alex

"What kind of Dust is it using," said Ruby

"Uh…"

'Fuck, she had to jump straight to the propellants didn't she,' thought Alex

He was planning on using Dust later, he didn't necessarily have the funds currently to start swapping out the propellants in his rounds or even start buying the ammo itself.

Alex also didn't know how it would wear on his guns; it was something that required extensive testing.

He decided to be forthright, it wasn't like smokeless powder was entirely non-existent

"Um… I'm not using Dust, it's smokeless powder," said Alex

Ruby had a puzzled expression on her face

"It's for a friend's company, he wants me to do a few test runs on the gun and the propellant," said Alex

"Oh, what's the company called?" asked Ruby

"Unfortunately, that's something I can't disclose right now, I had to sign some paperwork, but the most I can say is that the Company is new," said Alex

Ruby seem to accept that answer for now

'Well that was easy,' thought Alex

He could see that sparkle in her eyes again, Alex could already tell she was about to ask something ludicrous.

"What's your guns name," she said with this dopey look on her face

'Oh brother, she's one of those gun nuts,'

"Usually I just call it a gun," said Alex

Ruby was appalled.

"How could you not! Weapons are so cool! They're like extensions of ourselves!" said Ruby bubbling excitement and indignation

"Look kid I get it you love guns, but my philosophy is that guns are just that, guns. They're a tool for my work and when I'm not working, I only keep my pistol on me for personal defense and that's it," said Alex

Ruby looked a little more than disappointed but still resolute in her beliefs and that Alex is nothing more than a filthy heathen.

Daniel came out from the back with Ruby's shipment

'Took you long enough you old geezer,' thought Alex

Ruby decided to stick around for a little bit to look at the magazines and listen to music.

Alex moseyed on up Daniel

"Hey, doesn't this kid have a curfew or something, shouldn't you be calling her parents or something," said Alex

"Nah, she can handle herself, plus her parents would probably say the same. You know how these Huntsman are, they party hard when their young then forget the rubber one night and next thing you know they're trying really hard not to abandon their fucking kids," said Daniel chuckling

Alex found out that Daniel was a sewer boy himself but managed to climb himself out of that 'shithole', it certainly explains his crude humor.

"Alright, well you're the boss," said Alex returning to his post

Just when Alex thought it'd be another quiet night in walks that spiffy suit, orange-haired, doofus with at least six of Junior's men.

Guess that's what the envelope was for

Alex was in a bit of a pickle; he had no cover whatsoever. He was left in a Mexican standoff without the guns raised just yet, one of the goons went to his right trying to flank him, thankfully only two of them had pistols, the rest had machetes and axes while orange hair had nothing but his cane.

Flicking off his safety, Alex snapped up his rifle getting into his stance and started engaging.

Their auras were a little tougher, it took 5 shots to penetrate the two goons' auras that were approaching him, once he did, however, their legs were shot to hell. They went down screaming in pain as bullets penetrated their aura and flesh bringing a white-hot pain. The ones with the pistols started firing back, another one of their buddies that was trying to flank Alex was sent flying out the store window.

"My window!" yelled out Daniel

Orange hair dude decided to cut his losses and ran out the store, his mooks panicked as their boss ran and Alex was still pressing the attack putting another one down to the ground. They ran out stumbling and in a hurry.

Not before they got a few good shots on Alex

"Gah Fuck!" yelled out Alex as he got shot twice in the gut, it wasn't too bad with his subdermal armor, but it still hurt like a bitch.

Ruby launched herself out from the streets and quickly dispatched the goons, Alex watched from the concealed position of the store.

'A little unsettling how she's using that scythe may as well be an oversized stripper pole, way too fucking young for that' thought Alex

Orange hair was climbing up some ladders on the side of the building from across the street.

"You okay if I go after him," said Ruby

"Go ahead kid," said Alex

As Ruby leaped away, a common occurrence with these Huntsman, he quickly dragged the goons that were on the street back into the store. Alex grabbed his duffel bag with his extra medical supplies and flex cuffs.

Alex could already hear the blaring sounds of paramedics and police sirens; they'd be here soon.

Securing the would-be robbers and treating them is his number one concern now, the ones Ruby dealt with weren't so banged up, just some bruises. On the other hand, the ones Alex dealt with had their Auras caved in and their legs were shot to hell, he treated them first.

If they bled out and died at the store than his paycheck would be a fleeting dream.

Daniel was specific that Alex didn't kill anyone, it'd be bad for business.

The sounds of fighting continued, he even heard the roaring engines of an aircraft

Police? Orange Hairs getaway?

Whatever it was the fighting soon ended and the police were on the scene.

Alex got pulled aside and asked a few questions from the police and then let go.

He meandered around as the police started loading up the goons, Daniel was writing up his check then he'd head home. There wasn't much to do now, Alex did his job with some help and Daniel would have the close the shop for repairs. He owned a few other shops around Vale, so it wasn't like he'd go hungry.

The police officer that interviewed him mentioned that that orange-haired guy's name was Roman Torchwick and that if he had any more information regarding his whereabouts would be appreciated.

"You,"

Alex turned around, greeted with the sight of a blonde woman dressed up as a risqué librarian.

'I don't remember checking out any books from that library, maybe she saw me and is offering a library card,'

"Huh? Me?" said Alex pointing to himself

"Yes, you, you're coming with us to the police station," said the lady

"Lady look, whatever it is I was just doing my job, I'll tell you the same thing I told the cops," said Alex

"This is not a matter up for debate," the lady said doubling down

Alex looked around; the cops weren't going to tell her to take a hike anytime soon.

"Fine, fine I'll go," said Alex

"As if you had a choice in the matter," she said

'Oh this fucking bitch'

Alex could already tell she was going to be a major pain in the ass.

The police disarmed and cuffed Alex throwing him in the back of one of the patrol cars, alongside pipsqueak.

"Hi!... Again…"

As they rode in the police car Alex tried to make small talk with Ruby, but she was terrible at it. So was Alex but he at least made the effort.

The rest of the car ride was silent.

Once they were at the police station Ruby was whisked away somewhere else with the risqué librarian, Alex, on the other hand, was searched again and they confiscated all his gear, he was put through the usual motions.

After he was put in a jail cell with some sports hooligans, they were painted up like the Celtic warriors of old, but as of right now they were passed out like a bunch of big babies.

30 minutes passed and finally, a guard came to escort him to an interrogation room.

Alex waited another 5 minutes before the risqué librarian walked in along with some grey-haired dude with a coffee mug.

"Alex Guerrero is it?" the man asked

"Yeah that's right," said Alex

"I am Headmaster Ozpin of Beacon Academy and this," Ozpin said pointing to the blonde "is my lovely assistant Glynda Goodwitch,"

"Um…Nice meeting you," said Alex

It wasn't that nice; he was kind of pissed. He'd rather be at home drinking his hooch and listening to Ray Price in his underwear.

"From what I gather you performed well against Torchwick, admirable if foolish for someone without Aura," said Ozpin

"Yeah, well this isn't my first rodeo, I also had some help," said Alex

"So I've heard,"

Alex got this weird feeling from Ozpin, like he was fondling him with his eyes. It was weird as all hell, but he guessed he was just sizing up Alex.

"Regardless, you have shown yourself to possess selflessness and compassion all admirable qualities," said Ozpin

"You gather all that from me guarding a store?" said Alex

"We have something of a mutual friend, he told me of the time you saved a family from White Fang, with exceptional lethality," said Ozpin taking another sip of his coffee

'Joey that fuck,' thought Alex

He guessed Joey was some type of informant for Ozpin or the most likely answer was that he ran into Ozpin and started yapping away about Alex.

"And that is why I have a proposition," said Ozpin interrupting Alex's internal hissy fit.

"I've read your files Alex and they are somewhat…Vague,"

Alex felt a shiver along his spine, the bio he cooked up wasn't the most bulletproof, if someone smart enough looked through it they'd be suspicious of Alex. He just never expected anyone to be looking into him this soon.

"And that is none of my concern, as of late I have been placed in a peculiar position," said Ozpin once more sipping on his coffee

"I will be honest I am looking for someone who has skill but is ultimately expendable, someone who will not be missed,"

"You got a hell of a way giving out job offerings I'll tell you that much," said Alex as he rubbed his neck "how much are we talking?"

Glynda visibly bristled at those words, narrowing her eyes and scrunched up her nose like he just passed some foul air. She kept her opinions to herself for now. Ozpin remained impassive as ever.

"While the risk will be great, you will be protecting the people of Remnant from a far greater threat than petty crime. If nothing else, then take comfort that you will be paid handsomely. Should you accept I will contact you tomorrow with more details if not then we will part ways and this discussion never happened," said Ozpin

As far as Alex knew he could either be paid jack shit or he could be swimming in money soon, Ozpin was vague about exact figures but if he did enough errands for him than he could make enough funds for the tools he needed to get back home.

Alex pondered on it for a little while before he made his decision.

"I'll take you up on your offer Ozpin," said Alex

"Good, I will contact you tomorrow morning," said Ozpin

They shook hands.

'Don't know how they got my number already but whatever,'

As Alex was collecting his gear, he got a tap on his shoulder

"Hey pal, the chief wants to have a talk with you," said some cop

Oh great, another sit-down

'Well I don't have much going on, might as well go see what the good chief wants,' thought Alex

Alex walked through some corridors of the station before finding the chiefs office, it read Chief Sangria

He gave the door a knock

He heard a woman's voice call out "Come in,"

Alex walked in, there he saw the chief of police, a woman around her late 40's, graying bun of hair with a cigarette in her hand looking over reports with a permanent scowl on her face.

"Take a seat," she said without looking up from her report

Alex did as a she told

"So, why'd you want to see me," asked Alex

The chief took a drag from her cigarette

"I got some work for you, one of my boys already told me you accepted a deal from Ozpin, but if you want work that won't end up with your ass as Nevermore dinner then take a listen,"

Alex simply nodded for her to continue

"Now keep in mind once you take a job from Ozpin it's something of a permanent thing, he never leaves loose ends," said Chief Sangria

'Gee, really wished Ozpin mentioned that along with asking for someone who's expendable,' though Alex

"How do you know," asked Alex

"Once you've been chief of police as long as I've been then you see a lot and are often get mixed in with all the shady shit those Huntsman academies are up too. I've been around Ozpin and his associates long enough to know that whenever one of them wants out they disappear without a trace," said Chief Sangria

She took another drag of her cigarette, longer this time around

"You won't believe the shit I've had to cover up because Ozpin wants to keep this spotless image of Huntsman. I've seen Huntsman trafficking drugs, domestic violence, trash stores for no reason other than because they got their feelings hurt, assault people, take advantage of men and woman, and all this other shit," said the Chief

"And may the lady of Vale forgive us if they ever get into a prolonged fight out on the streets, all that fucking collateral damage,"

"All this bullshit seeped down into the force itself. Oh sure you'd get the bad cop every now and again but in the past decades one too many have been taking envelopes, it's why that cocksucker Torchwick manages to split every time before we can catch him," said Sangria

"So why exactly are you telling me all this exactly, what am I gonna do with the fact that your entire force is going into shambles," said Alex

Sangria's scowl deepened just a little bit, didn't argue with him because she knew he was right.

"Because it's not like you're gonna go running crying to Ozpin, plus you should probably be in the know, lot of Ozpins lackey's get into the big boy arena then get swallowed up because that asshole wants to play riddles," said Chief Sangria

"Right…So about that job you wanted to offer me," said Alex

"Yeah sorry, got a little carried away," she said putting out her cigarette "what I want you to do is this, keep me updated on things that's all I'm asking for. Because a lot of the time Ozpin keeps me out of the loop but you on the other, he's gonna put you through the wringer first whenever something comes up, if you end up making it through then I need you to come to me and give me your perspective of what's going on. Last time that fuck kept me out the loop I was neck-deep in shit with a hostage crisis, lost a lot of my boys and some of the hostages to faulty intelligence as well, I don't want a repeat of that,"

"And you just trust me with all this formation?" said Alex

"I don't," Sangria said lighting up another cigarette "but I know you're just a merc looking for a quick buck, it won't pay as good as Ozpin but it's a good side hustle,"

'Jesus Christ, I'm getting dragged into all this bullshit and week hasn't even passed yet, I either reject the Chief and risk pissing her off, putting me in a shitty position with the police or risk Ozpin finding out and having the most influential man on the world pissed off at me. Now that I think about it why am I talking to this hag in the first place?'

The money

'Ah fuck that's right' thought Alex

After some consideration for the second time that night Alex decided to cast his die. He'd needed the money, just one good score and he can vamoose from this bullshit world, sure some of the technology was amazing but he was putting himself into too much hot water too soon.

"Fine, you got yourself a deal," said Alex

"Great, just let me know when you have something for me," said Sangria

Alex departed the station that night, heading home

Daniel told him to meet him at this coffee shop tomorrow to pick up his check.

Now Alex was beginning to get deep into it, he felt a pang of regret for taking up the offer from both Ozpin and the Chief, he was in for one hell of a ride.

He just hoped it wouldn't come to bite him in the ass later.

**AN: Not much to say for this one except don't worry Alex is still not going to Beacon or anything like that he'll mostly be taking jobs from Ozpin and occasionally stopping by Beacon. If you have any critiques or questions, go ahead and leave a review or PM me. Anyways hope you have a good one. **


	5. Chapter 5

**El Dia De Mi Suerte I**

Blood

There was a lot of blood flowing down Alex's face.

It wasn't that big of a wound on his head, but it still spurts out blood like a bitch. His ears were ringing and his whole body was in pain, those were the first things he felt when he came too.

He didn't know how long he was knocked out for, but it couldn't have been for long.

Alex groaned out in pain, while the cybernetics were already doing their job, he'd need Med-X and a Stimpack, he could already hear gunfire coming from outside the tipped over car he was in. He needed to get back into the fight.

The car he was in was flipped over onto its side, the driver was dead, he died during the ambush and before the car flipped over, his body riddled with machine-gun fire turning his head and chest into a fine red paste.

Alex started coughing up blood.

A few rounds got Alex in the chest and his right arm, he was wearing normal clothing not at all expecting to get into a firefight, his bomber jacket already riddled with bullet holes.

He still had his MP5SD strapped onto him.

Alex could still hear intense gunfire going off, the convoy couldn't be far off now, he needed to regroup with them and get the hell out of dodge.

He began crawling out where the windshield once was, glass cutting up his hands and knees, his wounds were starting to close now, but the pain still hasn't subsided. Once he finally climbed out the car and onto the dirt road, he took cover scanning the tree line with his right hand raising up his MP5.

Alex could see the convoy up ahead; White Fang was closing in and about to overwhelm the convoy

He took a moment to dematerialize his Med-X and a Stimpack quickly treating himself and ran to catch up with the rest of the convoy and regroup.

Adrenaline was pumping hard into Alex now, he could hear himself breathing hard in through his nose.

The big guns needed to come out now because nobody would be coming to the rescue, Alex would have to pull his weight once more if he didn't want his last moments to be on Remnant.

_3 days earlier…_

Alex was waiting for Daniel to show up with his paycheck, for an old geezer he sure did pick a trendy spot.

It was a two-story coffee shop with a very homey feel to it, wooden chairs with plushy pillows and small round wooden tables, 19th-century style couches, bookshelves with 'DO NOT TOUCH' signs.

Customers were mostly young college kids with laptops or their scrolls trying to get assignments done or write up that raunchy romance novel that'll never get published. There were older folk too, but they tended to stay off the scrolls and were mostly talking with each other or just spaced out looking to the horizon.

The coffee shop was mostly quiet, there was jazz music playing in the background sounding eerily similar perhaps to an early Yusef Lateef record. Alex liked to keep his music tastes diverse. People were minding their own business just trying to get work done or grabbing coffee before heading off to work.

It was early in the morning, around 6:50, Ozpin texted him a little while ago saying to come by Beacon at noon. Alex also got a call from Daniel not too long ago saying that he was going to be running late, he got stuck in traffic and at the most optimistic he'd be there within the next 45 minutes.

Alex decided to order something while he waited, getting adventurous Alex asked the barista what she would recommend.

She started listing off a bunch of words like 'Expresso' 'Grande' 'Affogato' and all these strings of words

'Jesus I should have read up on my Italian,'

"Uh…Can I just get a large Coffee,"

The barista laughed a little and after Alex paid she gave him a cup and pointed him to the coffee pumps near one of the couches and a pillar.

'Feel like a damn fool'

As he waited Alex would take notice of the people coming and going making his usual color commentary as they went. One figure was some greasy looking dude with a grey overcoat his collar popped up and a black fedora, looked like your stereotypical flasher. The man walked into the coffee shop scanning around the store then took notice of Alex and made a beeline straight for him.

'Why do I attract all the weirdos'

The man stopped right in front of the table where Alex was seated and gave a smirk that only perverts would find charming.

"Hey pal, you interested in buying a little erotica," said the man still giving Alex that perverted smirk.

"I ain't interested in what you're peddling,"

"Not even gonna take a peek? This is some premium shit right here, got the latest issue of Ninjas of Love, hasn't even hit the shelves and I'll sell to you for a low price,"

"No,"

"Alright, alright here I got two words you're just gonna love to hear,"

Alex started grimacing

"Erotic…Fanfiction…"

Alex took a sip of his coffee

"I hate it,"

"Alright damn, tough market,"

And with that, the man scurried out the shop

'Fucking prick, didn't even bother harassing all the other people here,'

It made Alex a little self-conscious

'Do I look like a pervert?"

He thought his clothing was perfectly normal looking even here in Vale it could be considered normal and he didn't have that ugly of a mug, some even said he was handsome, once. Mostly all the scars he accumulated over the years marring his face. Besides his facial features Alex just chalked it up to his ability to attract all sorts of weird occurrences, it was a thing and he stopped trying to make sense of it long ago.

One of those occurrences was when he was nearly beaten to death by a gang of old ladies out in Freeside.

After retrieving a sexbot…

Did he ever use it? Alex neither confirmed nor denied the claims, but he sure was walking funny after coming out that factory.

Daniel finally showed up with Alex's paycheck in tow

They chatted for a little while with Alex explaining why he was taken to the police station. Afterward, they parted ways.

Alex's morning was clear for the most part, he just ran a few errands before catching a Bullhead to Beacon, he had to show the pilot some clearance pass that Ozpin sent him before they could take off. He got a great view of the city from up in the sky, awed at the size of the city. It was much larger than any city in the wasteland he's ever seen, even by pre-war standards Vale would have been considered enormous.

Alex also got a great view of Beacon, a majestic castle with gothic arches and a tower reaching the sky's, it was obviously not made for defense but more for aesthetics. If you're going to have one of the most prestigious academies on Remnant, then you damn well better believe that you're going to have an impressive-looking school.

Alex read somewhere that Beacon used to be the palace for the kings of Vale but after the Great War the king of Vale at the time retrofitted his palace to serve as an academy for future Huntsman, it was also symbolic of the New World Order with the Huntsman at the fore.

Vale may not have annexed the other kingdoms, but they did establish Huntsman to deal with Grimm as most kingdoms' manpower reserves were severely depleted, along with keeping the other kingdoms in check should they get uppity.

It worked, for a while

Then somewhere down the line, it started getting hazy, Huntsman academies started becoming more independent while the Kingdoms themselves started becoming more dependent on Huntsman apart from Atlas as they had already integrated them into the military.

Once the bullhead made it's stop Alex exited the aircraft and was on his merry way to Ozpin's office.

Alex strutted around the campus trying to look as cool as possible, he had to hide the fact that he was horribly lost.

'He really should have sent a guide, I have no idea where the fuck I am,'

Apparently, school was starting back up in Beacon, kids were going back and forth between places grabbing luggage or going over to their lockers to store their weapons.

Students that had already attended Beacon the previous year were moving luggage back into their dorms, mostly kids that left Vale for the summer to visit family or fuck around on vacation in some foreign kingdom.

He came across the ballroom where students were laying down sleeping bags or thick blankets, it was all a haphazard mess there were no orderly lines just kids plopping themselves wherever there was space or wherever their friends were.

Alex got a few looks his way, he felt like an old man and wildly out of place, he quickly left, he wasn't going to find directions here.

Eventually, he found an older, portly looking man talking with two students that were looking for some way out of their current conversation. It was more like the man was talking, left hand behind his back and his right making wild motions, while the students nodded their heads and looked bored to death. They were ready to book it when they could find their chance.

"Hey, um, excuse me I need directions"

"Hmm? What was that?" said the man turning towards Alex

The Students vamoosed

"I'm looking for Ozpin's office but I'm kind of lost, I was told to meet him around noon,"

"Oh yes! You must be that Alex fellow!"

"Yeah, that's me,"

"My apologies, Ozpin said you were coming, I was supposed to guide you, but you see I was recounting one of my daring adventures to these find young…Children?" the man looked at where the students once were mentally scratching his head

"Strange, I wonder as to where they went?"

"No Idea," Alex held in his laughter, he was still annoyed that he had to wander the school for a while, lost, just because this dude was reliving his past glories, but he supposed it made the situation much more humorous.

"Well regardless, I am Professor Peter Port, but please call me Peter,"

"Nice meeting you Peter, I'm Alex Guerrero,"

Port already knew but Alex was trying to keep it polite regardless

Port guided Alex to the elevator leading up to Ozpins office

'I can see why those kids were ready to jump off a cliff, this guy never shuts up,'

Thankfully the elevator wasn't too far off sparing Alex from Port's version of the Odyssey. He went up to see Ozpin alone, Port had other duties to attend too if he could accomplish them without innocent students falling to his clutches.

Once Alex reached Ozpin's office, he came out to the sight of a glass floor with clockworks underneath operating the clock outside Ozpin's window.

"Ah, Mr. Guerrero, apologies, Professor Port can get a little carried away with his tales I'm afraid,"

"No worries, what'd you want to see me about,"

"Straight to the point then, very well. Recently I have been pressured into looking more into the White Fang. Currently, I have most of my resources tied up with another matter so I will need you to investigate a few trails,"

"So, where do I start?"

"You will be meeting with an agent of mine; you will also be assisting him in looking into these trails. His name is Warren Sloe he will give you more information and as soon as you leave, I will send you the location where you will meet him,"

Alex grumbled internally, Ozpin was basically assigning him a handler without saying so, his agent would most likely be evaluating him to see if he was going to cause any trouble, but Alex supposed it was the smart thing to do with an unknown.

"Any questions?"

"Nah, I'm solid,"

With that done Alex turned to leave and Ozpin going back to his scroll

"Oh, and one more thing Mr. Guerrero," said Ozpin without looking up from his scroll

"Yeah?"

"Perform well in your task and I'll even allow you to use some of the equipment within the academies armory, should you so wish,"

Alex nodded and left without another word.

As Alex was leaving, he came across two individuals who he wasn't particularly excited to see.

Pipsqueak and Blondie.

They were carrying sleeping bags and heading in the direction where the ballroom was, it was nowhere near dark, but Alex suppose they were trying to get the good spots first before they were all taken up.

Alex kept walking it wasn't like he knew her that well just someone he met during work and a shootout.

But Ruby sure did feel the need to recognize him

"Alex!?"

'Huh?'

She rushed up to Alex with frightening speed leaving a trail of roses, Blondie left in the dust trying to catch up to her.

'This damn kid is way too excited to see someone she barely met last night,'

"What're you doing here? Do you work here now?"

Alex took a step back as Ruby was a little too close to him, not face to face on the account of their being a massive height difference but he enjoyed his personal space. Mostly because if he got into a fight it gave him time to draw his gun and reach cover, it's the type of mindset most wastelander's have even when in a friendly conversation.

"Uh, sort of, I'm doing a few things for Ozpin,"

"Oh, alright," Ruby said with her cheery demeanor.

"Hey! Why'd you run away like that, never seen you this excited seeing a boy, let alone an old man," said Blondie wiggling her eyebrows at Ruby.

Alex's eye twitched a little

'I'm not that old you cow,'

Meanwhile Ruby was blushing

"It's not like that! He's the security guard I was talking about, the one at the Dust shop I usually go to,"

"Oh yeah, the one with the weird gun, right?"

"Yeah that's him, Alex this is my sister Yang," said Ruby pointing to her sister

"How's it going," Alex said, he didn't bring up the fact that they do not look related to each other at all, but he kept quiet, they probably got that a lot already.

Yang looked Alex up and down, irritating Alex a little

"So, what's a rent-a-cop doing at a place like this?" said Yang

'This has to be karma for shooting polar bear,'

"Running a few errands for Ozpin not much, now I don't mean to be rude, but I really need to get going before the bullhead leaves,"

"Alright see you later Alex!"

"See you later errand boy!"

As Alex walked off, he could hear Ruby chastising her sister, Yang defended herself by saying she was just messing around and didn't mean anything by it.

It hurt Alex's ego a little that he got his balls busted by some teenage girl and he couldn't even bust balls back. It wouldn't look good on Alex if he started feuding with one of Ozpin's students. Also, she didn't seem like the type to get smoke dished back to her evident by the fact that she fucking totaled a club because Junior was being slightly rude to her.

Alex got the location of his contact while in the bullhead, Ozpin told him to bring his gear as well, he'd be heading back into the Sewers.

The location was an apartment on 10th street, room 32

Alex got back to his apartment and started loading up his duffel bag with his weapon and armor, he'd wait a few more days before whipping out the Pip-Boy or at least until his job took him outside of the city itself.

Getting a taxi, Alex got out a few blocks away from the apartment and walked the rest of the way making sure he wasn't followed. He probably didn't even need to, but in his experience, it never hurt to be careful.

Reaching room 32 Alex knocked on the brown wooden door 4 times with 3-second intervals, to signal the agent that he was here.

'Feels like I'm in a dumb spy movie, was already feeling it when I was doing all of that extra shit'

The door opened revealing an older man, goatee, balding, red flannel shirt, black jeans, and red sneakers.

"Come on in," the man said

Alex walked in with the man closing the door behind him.

"Ozpin said you were coming, Alex, right?"

"Yeah that's right, and you're Warren?"

"Sure am,"

They shook hands, they were probably going to do some shady shit and Alex may not want a partner, but it doesn't kill to be polite.

Warren had a deep and resounding voice, not like an authority figure, more like a dad reading a bedtime story, at least that's how Alex processed it.

"Well it's good he sent someone with manners at least, usually I get drunks or kids with attitudes," said Warren

"Yeah, well, I like to keep it professional,"

"That's good to hear,"

"So, Ozpin was pretty vague on what we're doing, he only said that you'd fill me in,"

"Yeah, sounds like Ozpin alright,"

Warren walked into the kitchen, the place was old and wooden much like Alex's apartment but much more spacious, it was darker as well, the sun wasn't hitting this side of the building.

"Coffee? Usually, I don't drink past 12, but it's going to be a long night," said Warren

"Sure, I'll get some thanks,"

Warren walked back over handing Alex a white mug.

"Here, take a seat," said Warren motioning towards one of the wooden chairs situated around a small round table in the middle of the room.

"First let me ask you this, how much do you know about the White Fang?"

"I know they started out as a peaceful organization after the Faunus rights revolution then they started radicalizing about 5 years back, and that's about as much as I know"

"At least you know the basics but there's more to it than that," Warren took a sip from his mug

"Let me give you a little more info, it relates to our current mission. There are several cells within the White Fang, not all of them violent, but then there's the big three who influence all the other smaller White Fang cells. These are the Kuo Kuana branch, the Liberation front, and the Red Shirts, then a group called the enforcers keeping all them in line,"

"What makes them all different,"

"Well the Kuo Kuana branch is the original White Fang radicalized, they've been operating here in Vale as of late. The Liberation front started off as a White Fang cell but turned into an independence movement in Mistral on one of its largest Islands, it started incorporating humans into their armed forces angering the Kuo Kuana branch but they still manage to exert considerable influence throughout Mistral,"

"And the Red Shirts?"

"Oh boy, they're a doozy," said Warren looking out the dirty window of the apartment "They were the White Fang before the White Fang. They've been fighting Atlas on and off since before the Great War, they're the elite of the elite and once they joined the greater White Fang, they've managed to strike several Schnee factories and compounds outside of Atlas with alarming efficiency. Now that they have the resources to continue the fight, they've been running circles around the Atlesian military and even killed a decent number of Specialists and Veteran Huntsman,"

"These guys are the real deal I take it,"

"You bet your ass they are, while the other cells are either half-starved somewhere out in the wilderness or firebombing stores these guys are launching whole military operations against Atlas and Schnee facilities,"

"So, where does this tie in with the mission?"

"I'm getting to that. About a year ago, things started getting icy between the big three, one of the leaders in the Kuo Kuana branch took serious issue with the Liberation fronts practice of accepting humans amongst their ranks, the enforcers were sent. They had their heads cut off and sent back to Menagerie, then the Red Shirts pulled all their forces out of the White Fang cells they were working with and cut off all communications with the rest of the Fang,"

"Gotta hand it to you Warren you did a hell of a job procuring all this info,"

"It wasn't easy and most of it I only received just recently, as in a month ago,"

"So, I take this is what the mission is all about,"

"Bingo, we're still in the dark concerning recent events within the White Fang," Warren said as he grabbed a pair of binoculars from the kitchen counter "you see that apartment across the street?"

"I do,"

"I've been staking it out for two weeks now, there's been a lot of foot traffic, a lot of Faunus moving in crates to those last three apartment rooms over there. I also got a tip that a certain wolf Faunus came back into town not too long along ago, his name is Milo Rango and that he might be in one of those apartment rooms"

"Who's he?"

"An influential figure within the White Fang, real cozy with the higher-ups. He used to be a student at Beacon a year ago, he was a White Fang spy. We caught him when he would often elope with female Faunus students and try to convince to go in with the White Fang, he ran off before we could catch him,"

"What does he look like,"

"Average build, silver hair, yellow eyes, has a scar on his right cheek. See if you can get a positive ID on him, he's a secondary objective though, if you can catch him great, if not then don't worry. Your primary objective is to clear the rooms and take anything that might contain useful information Scrolls, laptops, paperwork, anything,"

"So, you wanna go in and raid the place,"

"I won't be doing the raid, just you,"

"We're the only ones on this?"

"Yes, unfortunately, Ozpin doesn't seem to think that its that much of a big deal so I've been sitting on my ass waiting for him to start kicking me more resources, sorry kid, but this is about as good as it's going to get,"

Alex could tell Warren was a lot more frustrated than that, seems he's not really a handler more like some agent who's begging for more resources to start investigating his leads.

He didn't press Warren any further, it seems like they were going to be in this boat for a while and would have to resource themselves.

They would wait until midnight before they hatched the raid, Alex and Warren passed the time playing cards and smoking cigars that Warren had on him. Once the clock hit Midnight Alex was getting dressed in his full Hoplon operator gear and using his BCM once more with all its attachments, it was something of his go-to rifle at the moment and as much as he loved All-American he wasn't out in the woods or anywhere green for that matter.

"Here, Warren," Alex passed over a walkie talkie "I got comms on my helmet let me know if you see any more bad guys come into the building and I'll let you know once I got the Packages,"

"Good luck, I'll keep in touch,"

The streets were empty and dimly lit, the apartment building where the White Fang were hold up in only had a few lights coming from it as well, none were coming from the White Fang's rooms.

'Guess the bad guys hit the hay,'

Alex activated his stealth nano-bots to hide himself from any lookouts that could alert the enemy, he didn't notice any as he walked into the apartment complex.

'These guys are sloppy,'

Continuing up the steps Alex didn't encounter anybody luckily, he had to enter through the front gate, it was pretty much his only option it wasn't like he had the gear to rappel down and crash into the windows.

Once he reached the end of the hallway, he considered his game plan. Alex would have to clear the rooms hard and fast, he's done this many times before as a one-man team, but it doesn't make it any easier.

Alex quietly picked the locks of each the doors so he could quickly throw in a flashbang then rush into the room. Flashbangs were a real bitch for Faunus because of their enhanced night vision and hearing making the effects of a flashbang more pronounced.

He started with the first door then would continue down

*BANG*

Alex rushed into the room quickly IDing targets then dropping them, there were three targets, he then proceeded to clear the closet and the bathroom checking for any more bad guys.

"First room clear, no Milo," Alex whispered into his microphone then releasing his comms button.

He could already hear movement in the other rooms, alarmed by the flashbang.

The second room was cleared much like the first this time with only two targets, one with Aura it took Alex a little longer to put her down.

"Second room clear, no Milo,"

By the time Alex reached the final door, there was a hail of gunfire, Alex quickly stepped out the way of the gunfire coming from inside the room.

"We got you now! You fuck!" one of the bad guys yelled out

Had Alex been any normal person without an Aura that would have been true, but Alex isn't a normal human being.

Rushing into the room, time seemed to slow down for Alex, there was two targets to his right and one target in front of him, Milo. Alex quickly dispatched the two to his right shooting them in their heads and necks.

Milo rushed him, sure that he would be able to tackle Alex and had confidence in his immense reserves of Aura, many told him he was unique and special. A lot of people sucked his dick, literally and figuratively, while he was at Beacon, he was one of the best students they ever had even Glynda Goodwitch said he was going to go places.

'Sure, this guy is fast but he's still a loser without an Aura' thought Milo

Unfortunately for Milo his world came crashing down when his head contacted Alex's body. Milo could actively feel his Aura deplete immensely with a speed that made Milo feel nauseous.

Alex didn't even move an inch

Alex seized the opportunity, flinging his gun to his back, he wrapped his left arm around Milo's neck putting him in a standing guillotine, then smashing Milo's body against the wall to the left, Alex balled his left hand into a fist and then with his right hand pushed under the fist choking Milo out.

Milo tried punching Alex but he ended up just flaying around in Alex's clutches, his Aura was depleted way too fast and Alex was too strong for him to break out.

With Milo passed out on the floor, Alex slapped flex cuffs on him and radioed Warren

"Okay, all the rooms are cleared, and the VIP is secure. Starting extraction of electronics,"

"Alright, I'll bring the car around,"

Alex began stripping computer towers, taking scrolls, laptops, and throwing them all into his duffel bag. A good haul, or at least he assumed it was one.

Nobody came out to investigate all the gunshots, something of a theme within the Sewers.

Alex threw Milo over his shoulder and had the duffel bag strapped over his body, it was a lot especially with his gun still being strapped on him, but he has a strong back, so it wasn't that big of a deal.

Warren waved Alex over once he saw him exit the apartment complex.

Milo was thrown into the back of the car with the duffel bag following him in.

"Okay, let's drop our friend here and the stuff at the warehouse,"

Warren drove for a little before they came up on a series of warehouses near the port.

Warren pulled over where a woman was waiting for them outside the warehouse door. She opened the backseat door and pulled out the duffel bag without a word.

"Who's that?" Alex asked

"That's Cassandra, she's kind of pissed right now because I interrupted her beauty sleep, so we'll leave her alone and let her get to work,"

"What about sleeping beauty here,"

"Let's grab him and take him into one of the rooms,"

Alex and Warren grabbed each end of Milo and put into one of the 'rooms' it was more like a shipping container with a chair and light. They propped Milo on the chair, Warren fastened the leather straps on the chair strapping him in.

"Once our friend here wakes up, I'm going to give him some enhanced interrogation,"

"Need any help?" asked Alex

"I got it from here, you did pretty good in there Alex. I'll admit I thought Ozpin was going to send me another one of his fuck ups, but you don't seem that bad,"

"Thanks, I guess,"

"Alright I'll meet up you in a few hours, go to a diner called Freddie's it's not too far from here, of course providing you're not too tired,"

"Nah, it's alright I'm use to this kind of stuff,"

"Alright, I'll see you in a few,"

Alex walked out of the container, closing the door behind him. He went over finding Cassandra and his duffel bag, she already emptied the contents out and was getting to work but left his street clothes inside the bag.

Choosing a secluded corner of the warehouse he took off all his gear and got dressed in his street clothes, walked out the warehouse and over to Freddie's diner.

_4 hours later…_

As Alex was waiting in the diner, he ordered some food and pasted the time looking at his scroll, looking at the news, there was going to be a Faunus protest tomorrow.

Honestly, he couldn't see the system-wide oppression against the Faunus groups were complaining about. Then again it was probably because he was a human so couldn't see the subtleties that the Faunus could pick up on.

Warren walked in, with a new set of clothes this time around.

"Got messy?" asked Alex

"Yeah, but I managed to get some intel from him,"

A waitress came over to take Warren's order, he got a few things and the waitress left.

"How're things on Cassandras end?"

"She's still digging through all the stuff you grabbed. We'll know more later in the day. Now usually we would have to check in with Ozpin but he's going to be busy today with assigning teams, so we'll go ahead and move on with the next thing. I got a guy here in the industrial district, he's got a little package for us, we're going to pick it up then head back to the warehouse,"

"Sounds easy enough,"

"Because it is, now let me eat before we leave, I'm starving,"

After Warren had his breakfast, they rolled out to meet his contact, it was a shady looking sweat shop alongside the canal.

"Alex, go ahead and get behind the driver's seat, I'm going to go inside and make the payment. I'm going to be pulling out that garage over there, follow me back to the warehouse,"

Warren left the car taking a briefcase with him. Alex surprisingly knew how to drive a car, albeit most of the time they were pieces of shit or stick shifts.

Alex waited for a bit behind the driver seat before seeing Warren pulling out the garage of the sweat shop.

He followed Warren back to the warehouse, they got out their cars and Warren popped the trunk of his car. There was a man bounded in duct tape and had a black bag over his head.

"Alright, let's get this guy out of here,"

They lifted the man and put him in the same container Milo was, although Milo was now noticeably absent. This time Alex stuck around to help with the 'enhanced interrogation' Warren was even impressed that Alex knew so much, certainly wasn't his first rodeo that's for sure.

They got some stuff out of the guy, didn't know a whole lot just that Adam Taurus was near Vale, he split off with some more extremist White Fang members without Sienna's consent and was stealing a lot of Dust. When pressed for more info the man said he didn't know anymore and that all he knew was that it must be something big.

Alex and Warren stepped out of the warehouse for a quick smoke break and to see what the next move was.

"Ozpin know we're out here snatching guys and tickling them. Not that I'm complaining but I don't know, seems like something he'd cause a fuss over," said Alex

"He's pretty hands-off with his agents and probably wouldn't take too much of an issue if he found out, it's the people surrounding him that would cause a fuss if they found out,"

"Ah alright,"

Alex didn't continue his line of questioning, if he did, it'd probably make him look suspicious wanting to know what Ozpin's inner circle could be.

"So, are we going after anymore leads?" asked Alex

"Not today, I have some things coming in, but we'll have to wait later, for now Cassandra should be wrapping things up with her reports so we can connect some dots. Let's head inside,"

By the time they entered the warehouse Cassandra was already on her way out, Alex got a better look at the woman, she was very pale, had bags under eyes, her hair looked like it was cut by herself, it was a bad bowl cut exposing a lot of her forehead. She walked up to Warren in basically pajamas and shoved a thick stack of papers stapled together into his hands.

"Reports done, getting sleep," she said, promptly walking out

Warren chuckled

"Yep, that's Cassandra for you, not much of a conversationalist regardless of whether she got sleep or not,"

"Seems like a real riot,"

"She's not that bad, just not a people person, but a damn good hacker. Anyways let's see what we got here,"

Alex followed Warren as they walked over to an area of the warehouse with computer monitors and metal chairs laying around, Warren flipped through the papers as they walked.

Warren took a seat in one of the chairs still looking at the papers

"So, what do we got?" asked Alex

"A lot if it's just inventory for the cells around Vale, no concrete locations just codenames for bases, doesn't look like their stocking much. There's not much here about the current situation between the big three. And uh… Ah! Here we go!"

Warren pulled out a highlighter from his pocket and marked a few things of interest before handing it over to Alex.

"Looks like these guys were trafficking drugs, racking in a lot of cash," said Alex

"Even better, look at the bottom of the report, the idiots left a solid location for one of their drug farms. It's outside a small village along the coast, low density of Grimm so they set up shop there, if we strike that we'll put a dent in the Fangs operations here in Vale,"

"Right, that's great news and all Warren, but we can't really do jack shit with this info. Unless you plan on me running around trying to play whack a mole with the bad guys, I don't think only the two of us can take this operation down, besides the farm they have a whole compound there"

Alex could probably take down the whole operation no problem, it's just the logistics of the operation, it would take way too long to take out White Fang and confiscate the drugs and the intel by himself.

Warren deflated, his excitement in the dumps

"You sure did rain on my parade kid," said Warren

"I'm just being a realist, you're going to have to get Ozpin to kick over some manpower for this Op,"

"No, no we can't,"

"Why not?"

"Last time I did that he sent over two teams of his fucking Beacon kids, said they were his best, but they were a pain in the ass to deal with and they fumbled the whole operation."

"So where are we gonna get the manpower?"

Warren took a moment to think, he'd open his mouth to say something but closed it shut to think some more. He would this a few more times before finally, he had an idea

"Listen, I know a guy he owes me a favor, his name is Junior, he has a club out on Rue street,"

"I know the place, but Junior? Seriously? He lent some of his goons to a high-profile criminal, I even dropped a few them pretty quick. If we're picking up his bozos, we should instead look somewhere else"

"Junior is more an information broker, he doesn't play favorites, and no we won't be using his goons. He'll get us some solid people,"

"Alright, I'll go see him then, what're you doing in the meantime,"

"I'm going to clean up our friend in the container, then I'm going to type up the reports for Ozpin. I'll give you a call tomorrow after you talk to Junior the rest of the day is yours,"

"See you later Warren,"

Alex on his way to Juniors was wishing that he had his Hoplon guys here, at least then he'd know he was going to be working with professionals. For his first day of working for Ozpin, he was essentially put into a complete shitshow, the only people on this team were him, Warren, and Cassandra.

Warren was decent enough to be working with even though he's not much of a fighter, he takes his job seriously and does the best he can with what limited resources he has. Cassandra, he didn't know that well, so he reserved judgment. Alex figured the council was on Ozpin's ass, so he put Alex in there to give the team a more aggressive element.

Alex finally understood then what Ozpin meant by being expendable,

'Not because it's necessarily dangerous, it's because we don't have any goddamn support, it's more of an appeasement team to shut up the council more than anything,'

That's what Alex believed anyways, there could be more to it that he just didn't know. Whatever it is, it's leading him to deal with the shadier parts of Vale, he had a strong feeling that this was going to be off the books, even from Ozpin.

**AN: That's a wrap on the first part of this arc, I know there's quite a bit of deviation from canon, but it's been happening since day one of this story. I won't do anything too bizarre though so don't worry. From now on I'll try to be posting once a week on Mondays, the latest being Tuesday if I'm hung up on how to progress the story. Like always if you have criticism or like certain aspects of the story let me know in the reviews. Have a good one folks. **


	6. Chapter 6

**El Dia De Mi Suerte II**

Ruby's excitement was out the roof!

They just got done with their initiation, it was super exciting, although it was kind of long and started to get boring after the 10th team, Ruby was even dozing off at one point of the ceremony but bounced right back up once her team was called up. She was made the team leader, while she was super happy that she was a leader she also super nervous, after all, she was only a socially awkward 15-year-old with a gun fetish.

At the time though she was mostly elated, the full weight of being a leader and therefore the responsibility for the lives under her command hadn't fully hit her yet. Even her sister was happy for her, giving Ruby a massive bear hug. Speaking of her sister, she was on her team! Yang wasn't her partner sadly, that would be Blake, she was quiet and didn't talk much, especially to Weiss. She instead preferred reading her book even during the ceremony. Ruby was pretty sure she wasn't reading it because she rarely ever flipped a page or maybe she was just a slow reader.

Then there was her partner Weiss, she was kind of a B-I-T-C-H but Ruby didn't vocalize that bad word or even dare say it in her head since Yang and her dad would always tell her to never say those bad words. Ruby thought Yang was a hypocrite though because whenever dad was gone for long periods of time, she'd bring over a boy into her room, she heard a lot of cursing coming from Yang and loud banging sounds.

When Ruby would ask her what all the ruckus was about Yang would tell her that she and that boy were just practicing some wrestling moves, it was weird because Yang was always more of a boxer than a wrestler.

Ruby only found out what that meant when she started hanging out more with her friends from Signal more often and she would tell them what her sister told her. Oh, boy, was she beat red.

Among other culture shocks, she saw poor people for the first time ever when her dad started letting Ruby going out to the Vale on her own. Real poor and homeless people, something she'd only ever see on TV or in the movies. She met a homeless bum once at a Burger Queen when she was with her friends and he was asking for change, Ruby gave the man 5 Lien and he thanked her profusely. Then he walked out the Burger Queen never to be seen again.

Ruby didn't know why he walked away; the line wasn't that long.

But back to Weiss, she was still a B-I-T-C-H and was a hard person to talk too because of that one time she knocked into her luggage and caused a small explosion. It was her fault for shaking that dust vial in her face! She also kept making bitchy remarks at her and had a bitchy tone to her voice too. Ruby was sure that she'd turn around soon enough. Hopefully. If she was going to be like this for the next four years, then she might as well had let the Nevermore eat her alive.

Anyways the ceremony went off without a hitch. What Ruby found strange was that Jaune got put in charge of his team, which didn't help but make her question Ozpin's decision-making skills. It made her feel worse because vomit boy was a nice guy but that's about it, the fact he survived Emerald forest at all was amazing. They had Pyrrha Nikos on team JNPR, she's a world-class fighter and really cool too. In Ruby's mind that pretty much summed up what a leader should have among other things, a very simplistic view since leaders don't need to be good at everything but they should inspire confidence and lead by example even if they're not the best of fighters.

Still didn't mean Jaune was any of those things.

Regardless she wasn't going to let that tarnish her good mood, hopefully, Jaune would get better as the school year progressed, if not then he'd provide comic relief at his expense.

With the ceremony over, the ballroom was left open to the students so they could celebrate and get comfortable in their new teams, it was awkward at first since not everyone knew each other that well, people came from all over Remnant often having to leave their friends and families behind in order to attend Beacon so there were only a few groups of people that knew each other well. Her team mingled with each other and team JNPR trying to break the ice, it was imperative that they got along because it'd make cheating on tests easier if they could bum it off each other or copying homework.

Not all students at Beacon had the best work ethics, hell not all of them were even sure why they wanted to become Huntsman besides the money and fame or their parents being Huntsman as well so they decided they would just continue the family tradition.

It went for a little while, it started getting dark out and luckily the teams were along well during the few hours they got to talk with each other.

Then someone yelled out "Saturdays are for the boys!"

It confused Ruby because it wasn't Saturday, it was Tuesday.

Other boys didn't seem to care because they started yelling it back, that's when all hell broke loose. A few people smuggled in backpacks full of beers and started handing them out, people started shotgunning beers and smashing the empty cans onto their heads or threw them haphazardly around the ballroom.

At first, it was just a few hooligans but then it started engulfing the entirety of the ballroom turning it into a bro fest of chaos. They didn't even give any of the girl's drinks. Any boys that handed girls a beer was instantly and constantly berated.

"Pussy!"

"Simp! Simp! Simp!"

"You're a fucking Beta Broooooo"

Jaune was one of those people getting berated.

Ruby lost her teammates in the chaos, somebody got a hold of the aux cord to the ballroom speakers and started blasting loud rap music where it was a bunch of "haw haw"

She quickly made her way out of the ballroom; it was far too loud, and it started to smell like Uncle Qrow after he went out on a bender. She left and went to her team's dorm room, before the ceremony they moved in their stuff after a quick break, tomorrow she planned on fully decorating it with her new team. The room was empty, with nothing more to do Ruby plopped herself onto one of the beds and watched Dust Tok videos on her scroll before putting on her pajamas and calling it a night.

Tomorrow would be their first day of actual school at Beacon, she missed her friends from Signal but she'd still be able to see them in Vale on the weekends or after school and she liked sending them letters even though she could just call or text them on her scroll. Oh well, tomorrow is a new day and she was sure it was going to be the best.

_Earlier in the day…_

Junior watched as construction workers went to and fro within the nightclub reassembling the glass pillars and making any repairs that the club needed. He was smoking a big cigar and had his left arm lapped over the head of the booth seat.

He was far from relaxed; he was more stressed if anything.

The past week was a complete train wreck. First Roman came and tried stiffing him out of his guys, then a hot-headed bimbo came in a crushed his hopes and dreams of ever having children, then Roman goes off and gets his boys locked up in a failed Dust heist and demanded a full refund.

Junior made the unfortunate decision of telling him to go fuck himself.

Now he has Romans mute sidekick currently watching over him 24/7, making sure Junior refunded Roman in full and then watch over Junior in case he tries to do anything unsavory towards Roman and his associates.

Junior looked over to where said sidekick was now, she was stuffing her face with an absurd amount of Neapolitan ice cream by the bucket full.

Her severe ice cream addiction was conveniently funded by the gracious Junior himself. When she wasn't annoying Junior or eating ice cream then she was scaring his customers off or sending her own goons to take care of people on Romans shit list. If it weren't for the fact that she was good at her job then he would have had her whacked since yesterday, but currently, the cards just weren't stacked in his favor.

While Junior was constantly being monitored, he still had a business to run. He'd see his usual customers, informants, or bookies come in. Besides being an information broker Junior also had a few gambling rings within Vale city, mostly sports and horse races, he could never get into the bolita game, on the account of the Vacuan cartels protecting their numbers rackets with a religious fervor.

Although Neo had the habit of scaring off his customers, it was costing him money, besides the repairs and bailing out the guys he also had to foot the medical bills for the people injured at his club. Not because he had a bleeding heart or anything like that, merely because they couldn't sue the bimbo so the only person they could sue was Junior. If he went to court, then the government would be investigating his establishment and if he whacked the people suing him then that would only serve to add more suspicion.

Junior had one of his guys outside the club to bring in his customers or informants. Today was slow, relatively, he still had a whole team looking over information and compiling it for Junior to look at later, but only when they had something particularly juicy would they go see Junior in person with a report.

Melanie and Militia gave themselves a vacation mostly because Neo scared the shit out of them, and they got their shit kicked in by a teenager 4 years younger than them.

So, when his guard came in with someone among his usual group of visitors he was surprised and a little annoyed, but he supposed his guard didn't bring him in for no reason. The guard told Alex while he talked with Junior.

"Boss, there's a guy here to see you, he says he has a favor to call in for a Warren Sloe,"

"Alright bring him over,"

The goon waved Alex over, Alex walked over to Junior having to leave his duffel bag in the entrance hallway. He stood in front across from where Junior was seated in the alcove circular booth, still puffing away at his cigar. Junior gave Alex a hard stare, looking him up and down, letting the silence build up tension within Alex.

Junior thought he looked like the man.

But in reality

He looked constipated, Alex wasn't all that intimidated, he saw this man's nut sacks put in a vice grip by some teenage girl so that washed away any type of intimidation factor. If anything, Junior was the one squirming, he looked into Alex's eyes and saw the abyss stare back at him.

Taking another puff of his cigar, Junior put it out on the nearby ashtray and halted his wimpy attempts of a staring contest.

"So, you're Warren's little sidekick huh?" said Junior sinking into his seat, if he couldn't win the staring contest then he might as try to demean him with mean, mean, words.

"I'm here to cash in his favor,"

"Before we get to his favor, I have a question,"

"Fine, ask away," Alex didn't really want to entertain this clown any longer than he needed to, but it paid to play along.

"Why does he want to call in his favor now and send an errand boy of all things,"

"We need it for an operation, we're in need of some extra manpower and we have no choice but to source it ourselves, through you of course,"

"What's this 'operation' you're talking about,"

"I'm not at liberty to discuss those details,"

There was a moment of silence, Junior was mulling over what Alex said which wasn't a whole lot. It was certainly a risk since he didn't have enough details but usually, Warren was dealing with bum fuck White Fang in the city and his boys could manage against them with a level of competence.

"Alright I can do that, I'll contact Warren and send him some of my boys,"

Alex's deadpan stared hardened for a moment, it wasn't actual facial movements but something he learned from Boone when he heard complete bullshit being spouted, it came from being extra silent. If that was even a thing.

"Not looking for your moronic goons, we need professionals, people with military backgrounds,"

The guard beside Junior's alcove looked visibly irritated by that statement. Junior himself leaned into the table trying to stare down Alex once more.

"What you're looking for is a little too pricey at the moment," said Junior in a low and aggressive voice

"Is that so?"

"I don't know if you already looked around the club but it ain't exactly cheap repairing all this, I'm in a precarious situation right now and can't go spending big bucks on every favor someone wants to call in. So, you either take the muscle I have or nothing at all,"

"I'll take nothing at all, I'm out,"

Alex turned to leave, briskly walking out of the club and grabbing his duffel bag on his way out. The lady eating ice cream was noticeably absent from the bar stools, he heard her slip out while he and Junior were conversing.

Where did she go? He had no idea and didn't care that much.

Alex walked back home planning on telling Warren the bad news over the scroll. He knew he wasn't going to get anywhere with Junior, while Alex considered himself persuasive, sometimes a person has their mind made up and there's not much he can really do about that.

Settling on Junior's goons would have been a total disaster, most of them were outfitted with whatever they could get their hands on, which meant melee weapons, pistols, and submachine guns. Alex doubted any of them knew any basic squad tactics, how to breach and clear a room, or even how to launch an ambush.

Quickly dispatching them without breaking a sweat was a major indicator, well he himself wasn't a good indicator because he's dealt with the worse the wasteland had to throw at him, he still took notes on their tactics, which was piss poor.

Another thing was the melee weapons, while Alex himself wasn't totally against the use of them, it just wasn't practical in what he and Warren needed to get done.

_'Nutless can brag all he wants but those guys are literal dead weight, good enough as cannon fodder I suppose,'_

Reaching his apartment door, he threw his duffel bag onto the kitchen floor then plopped himself onto his couch, sending dust and roaches flying all over. The roaches were something he could never fully get rid of in the apartment for whatever reason, they seemed to cling to every crevice of the apartment to an unnatural extent.

The apartment room was much cleaner than when he first got it, mice he managed to get rid of no problem except for the more ballsy mice. These mice were the ones that did 3 tours of duty, have 7 kids, and got a little coke addiction.

Pulling out his scroll, Alex dialed up Warren, he got his phone number while they were at the diner. The phone rang and rang before it went to voicemail.

_'probably busy, I'll give him a call later,' _

Alex decided to get a nap in while he waited for a callback, he called his eyes waiting for that sweet sleep to embrace him. At the last second, the fear of his ghosts jolted him awake, his eyes opened briefly before closing them again. Things like this would still happen from time to time even with the recent years of him being surrounded by friends, the mental scars still lingered.

He laid awake with his eyes shut for a while, there was still no call from Warren. Alex waited for a little while longer tapping his index on his belly at a steady rhythm.

All the nerves in his body were screaming for him to get up to do anything. Alex tried to keep it under control but no matter how many mind tricks he tried to pull on himself, Alex still had those nerves telling him to get up and do something.

Reluctantly, Alex got up from the couch and started pacing back and forth. There wasn't a whole lot of room to begin with, so the paces were rapid.

Boredom.

Boredom was setting into Alex, it was the best word to describe it. It still wasn't quite close to describing what he was feeling. There was something else mixed in with the boredom, the word was always at the tip of his tongue either because he forgot the word, or it was simply non-existent.

With an audible frustrated sigh, Alex sat back down rubbing his face, just waiting for that call from either Warren or Ozpin to tell him to come to kick down some doors. He'd contact Sangria, drop some of that info and ask nicely if she can put it in a good word with the VAIG commander, get the ball rolling. Problem was that he wanted to pitch the idea to Warren first, Alex would go to Sangria either way but if he went now then she might say 'fuck it' and run off with the law enforcement to raid the farm.

That would put Alex under the microscope and severely strain his relationship with Warren. Possibly getting Alex fired or killed in the worst-case scenario.

The more Alex thought about it, the more he started getting concerned that Sangria would turn out to be another Oliver. Trying to one-up the Huntsman so her police force can look like heroes in the current climate, it was more dick-waving he didn't care about.

Another thing that crossed Alex's mind was Aura. He's managed just fine without it for years, but it was never bad to get a little protection, if Ozpin couldn't kick over a little dinero for his little team then he might as well get him to unlock his Aura. Although Alex didn't even know if he could even obtain Aura based purely on the fact, he was never meant to exist on Remnant.

On the subject of money though, Alex was beginning to doubt that handsome ransom he promised, or at least not as much as hyped it up to be. It added an extra layer to Alex's frustration.

He continued to get up pacing back and forth, sitting down then getting back up rinsing and repeating. This was different from the itch on his ass, it was more like he had to finish something, but Alex, for the life of him, couldn't find out what that thing was. When he was much younger it was never much of a problem but nowadays it plagued him.

Alex would still go out into the Wasteland by himself or with Hoplon but the company would sometimes require him to stick around Vegas for long periods of time. Alex was so use to his life moving at such fast and intense speeds that in his free time he would feel uncomfortable, most of it came from having to confront himself. It was never this fast though usually, it took some time for it to build up, maybe it was the fact he couldn't just leave Vale and start trekking across the kingdom.

Alex sat back down for the last time grabbed his backpack next to his couch, grabbing his Pip-Boy and flipped through it checking his inventory looking for something. He managed to find what he was looking for.

It was a Jet inhaler.

On a relief mission in northern Wyoming, he stopped by Casper and paid Jack and Diane a visit. They were doing well for themselves along with the rest of the Great Khans. The Khans still retained their hard edge but their warbands slowly shifted to a more professional force, and there was more of an established government, but its society was still very aggressive and gung-ho. They helped greatly in applying pressure on legion forces in Colorado, they did so mostly at Alex's behest.

At the time before the rebels broke off from the legion, the Khans were more concerned about expanding into south Dakota and Nebraska, Alex managed to convince Papa Khan to go into Colorado.

Alex also saw Arcade while he was there, Arcade went with a Followers mission when the Khans reconciled with them. Arcade's decision to go to Wyoming was to get scarce from the NCR, while he stayed at the Fort to help the injured while the battle at Hoover Dam raged, he felt it was time to move on like the rest of the Remnants once the battle was over. Arcade went to Vegas to get away from the NCR in the first place, but now that it was an official state of the NCR he needed to leave once more.

It wasn't that emotional of a reunion with Arcade being Arcade and Alex being Alex, but it was good seeing each other once more.

Back to the Jet inhaler, it was something Jack cooked up, he wasn't very specific about what was in it but it wasn't the usual Jet, it was swapped with something else. Jack said it would help calm his nerves and even help him sleep. Alex was wary of taking it, but Jack wasn't a moron and it would have to be an absurdly strong drug for it to floor Alex.

With his decision made, Alex took a big hit of the inhaler, emptying it in one fell swoop. Not the smartest of decisions, but in his cockiness, he thought he could brush it off.

Alex could feel the first effects shortly after taking the hit, he felt like he was sinking into the couch and time seemed to slow down. That lasted for a little while, for how long Alex didn't know but it felt like ages. Then the euphoria started to kick in, Alex sprawled himself over the couch. The drug was easing his mind and the nerves he once felt were gone.

It was fairly relaxing all in all. Alex closed his eyes and started to fade off into sleep. He didn't know how long the process took but it sure did feel good. He just hoped he didn't sleep for too long he didn't want to miss a call back from Warren.

_Sometime later…_

When Alex awoke, he found his world upside down.

Literally.

He was dangling from a hook or something like that, blood was flowing into his head and if he could see himself in a mirror he'd look as red as a baboon's ass. Alex was wearing nothing but his underwear and had a ball gag in his mouth with his hands tied, a very incriminating sight.

The room was pitch black with his natural night vision picking up vague outlines of other hooks, perhaps he was in the back of a butcher shop or a facility like that. There was water dripping to the left of him. Alex wanted to activate his Bionic eyes to get a better visual of the room, but he could feel someone watching him from within the darkness.

If he activated his bionic eyes now, they would make his eyes glow slightly but here in the pitch-black room it would have been very noticeable, he would keep his hand hidden for now.

The water continued to drip in a steady rhythm, the effects of the drugs had long worn off at this point, he knew damn well this was too vivid to be a hallucination or one of his nightmares. Somebody must have tailed him and was watching him. Then snatched him up when he was passed out on the couch being too drugged up to stop them. Alex would curse himself for not making sure he wasn't being tailed but at this point, it'd solve nothing.

Instead, he had to bide his time, he could still feel the eyes on him. Whoever captured him was expecting him to freak out or assessing him before they revealed themselves. He was just guessing reasons as to why they captured him or haven't revealed themselves. Unfortunately for them, they'd be in a serious world of hurt once Alex found his window of opportunity.

Alex didn't have an idea as to who decided to kidnap him, he hasn't been in Vale long to warrant the ire of anybody. It certainly couldn't be his employer or Sangria, not the White Fang because he would largely be an unknown to them, even after the hostage rescue and the capture of Milo he had his identity hidden during those operations. That only left Roman and Junior, Junior was the least likely, he made one remark about his men, but he didn't say anything else besides that unless Junior was thin-skinned. That only left Roman, but then again, he wasn't even sure if he got a good view of his face.

Alex would have to interrogate his kidnappers for some answers.

He didn't know how long he was dangling there, the eyes remained ever constant and Alex remained ever calm.

Finally, he heard a door opening, there was light emitting from his back showing parts of the room in front of him. The door slammed shut and it was dark once more, a light switch was flicked illuminating the area where Alex was hanging from. He heard footsteps approaching him.

Two people.

Alex heard leather rubbing against skin, they were both encased in leather. The footsteps stopped, there was nothing but dead air and the sounds of water dripping.

_'Damn water,' _

Then he heard it.

The cracking of a whip. It happened a few times before Alex himself was whipped on the back. Alex made no noise in response, not giving these sick fucks the satisfaction. He was whipped again and again and again. The whipping ceased letting the stinging pain on Alex's back to radiate and linger.

Someone came up from behind Alex and into his field of view. A man, covered head to toe in a gimp suit carrying rope. The freak stared at Alex with wide bloodshot eyes for a while before opening his mouth.

"This little boy has been very, very naughty. Master wants to teach this little boy a lesson,"

Alex didn't respond. How could he?

"Oooooo, is the little boy scared?"

_'I still have a ball gag in my mouth, fucking dumbass,' _

"Hahahaha," the gimp cackled much like the super mutants of the Capital Wasteland.

The whipping resumed while the gimp punched his stomach or thrust his pelvis into Alex's face. He was going to make this fucker pay.

The whipping stopped soon after and the gimp in front to him unhooked Alex and undid his chain with the help of the other gimp, whoever tied up Alex did a piss poor job but even if it was secure it wouldn't have stopped it from his enhanced strength.

It was time to spring to action.

As far as he could tell neither of them had any actual weapons, there was perhaps torturer weapons within the room but that wasn't going to stop Alex from exacting his revenge, they also seemed more like drug-crazed fetishists than actual combatants, then again he made the same mistake assuming that about many a raider Warband and fiends and they could put a fight, somewhat.

Alex broke free from his bonds and punched the gimp man directly in the face with such a force that it caved in a portion of his face leaving it a bloody mess. The man fell hitting his head on the sleek concrete floor, if the punch didn't kill him then the hit on the head most certainly did.

The gimp to Alex's left tried grabbing Alex and restraining him, he ended up with a knee to the groin and a punch to the stomach that sent him flat on his ass. Activating his bionic eye, he was able to get a better view of the room and sure enough, there were a lot of torture devices strewn about the entirety of the room, enough to make his asshole pucker.

_'These sick fucks'_

Alex undid the straps that were securing the gag and let it fall to the floor. His jaw was sore from however long the gag was in his mouth, he gave It few movements to let it stretch its legs so to speak.

Alex then ripped the mask off the gimp

"Who the fuck sent you,"

The gimp didn't respond, merely trying to crawl away in fear of Alex.

"I said who the fuck sent you!" Alex stomped and shattered the man's left ankle.

The man howled out in pain.

"GONNA ANSWER MY QUESTIONS NOW ASSHOLE!"

"I DON'T KNOW, I DON'T FUCKING KNOW!"

The man was writhing in pain sprawled out on his back with tears in his eyes, Alex shattered his other ankle.

The man let out another cry of pain.

In terms of interrogation, Alex was going about it poorly. At this point he didn't care, he'd just been kidnapped from his home while trying to sleep in peace only to awake in some gimps den for no discernable reason besides a 'Master' wanting to punish him for whatever transgressions he committed.

"Okay! Okay! I'll tell you!" the man cried out

"Start talking,"

"I don't know her name but she's a mute, works for Roman, told us that you were one of the good guys and told us to take care of you. That's all I know I swear,"

"What does she look like," said Alex pacing in front of the gimp

"Like the fucking ice cream…Neapolitan,"

So it was most likely Roman then, it was possible that whoever this person was operating on their own as well and was a demented person. Either way, somebody must have passed down the order, either Roman or whoever the hell that lady is. This wasn't the first time an organization or a group of people tried hunting him down, but this was the first time any of them successfully managed to kidnap him, mostly because of Alex's slip up.

Most of Alex's enemies back in the Wasteland would have just killed him in his sleep, he built up a reputation of being somebody that was too resource-intensive to capture.

Alex continued to pace back and forth in front of the gimp, thinking of what he was going to do next. The gimp was still rolling on the ground moaning in pain. Alex knew that going back home was dangerous, there could be somebody posted within in his or watching the apartment in case Alex had any more visitors, but he still had his Pip-Boy in there along with all his firepower. If it wasn't already scattered to the winds, then he needed to go back in and retrieve it.

It could be dangerous in the long run if they figured out how to access the Pip-boys inventory, while Remnant was more advanced in other areas of technology than compared to Pre-war America, it still would have been a disaster if somebody accidentally de-materialized a plasma grenade. If Alex couldn't get to his Pip-Boy, then it'd leave him even more helplessly stranded.

Alex went on a limb and asked the gimp about all his stuff, he may or may not have known, but it was worth a try.

"Gimp, where the fuck is all my shit,"

He took a moment to respond, "We…we brought it here," the gimp muttered _fuck_ under his breath "we were gonna sell it off once we were done here, it's out in the front, over there," said the gimp pointing the direction from where one of them came in from.

In a stroke of good luck, that circumvented the whole process of going back home in nothing but his underwear, he can grab his things and relocate to another part of the Sewers. It wasn't as if Stacy would care if another dead beat vanished out of thin air to not pay their rent. First, he needed to contact Warren.

Alex looked over the gimp, still writhing in pain. He outlived his usefulness, grabbing the discarded off whip off the floor he wrapped it around the man's throat and began strangling him. The man struggled, trying to squirm his way out or hitting Alex repeatedly but to no avail. As his struggles were ceasing so was his life.

Alex picked up the lifeless body and put it onto one of the butcher hooks letting it dangle from the man's back, Alex did the same with the other body. He let them dangle from the hooks penetrating their skin and muscles.

Exceedingly dark, even for Alex, but he needed to send a message. Whoever would come to check up on them would only find their bodies on hooks, a clear message that Alex wasn't fucking around and wouldn't tolerate this kidnapping nonsense.

It was moments like this that showed Alex that he stared into the abyss for far too long, compared to the morally stand up kid leaving the vault for the first to the modern Alex. It wasn't like he was an edge lord without humanity going around monologuing with people he was ideologically opposed too. It was just that the Wasteland showed him sometimes you must growl back in order to stave off even worse morally bankrupt degenerates.

Alex left, exiting out the door from where the gimps came from. It was the back of what further up looked like a storefront for a butcher shop. It was completely empty save for Alex, he looked to his right and lo and behold there was all his stuff, or at least what little he had. It was all stacked up onto his shitty couch, even his clothes looked fine, guess they were polite enough to not rip it off him.

_'Didn't even spare the damn couch from their thievery,'_

It truly was a piece of shit, Alex honestly didn't even know why they bothered, but he guess they really did want to milk him for all his worth.

He got dressed grabbing his usual street clothes, slinging on his duffel bag he then grabbed his Pip-Boy from the backpack and slipped it on. This time around it would stay on, suspicions be damned. He'd rather not get caught with his pants down again, he got lucky this time, but this was way too close for his liking the Pip-Boy would have to stay strapped lest he wants his only viable path home along with his firepower to vanish.

The Pip-Boy itself was loud in terms of visuals, but it would easily be underestimated here on Remnant as the Pip-Boy looked bulky and archaic compared to the other more sleeker technologies.

Grabbing his scroll, Alex exited the store, making himself scarce before anyone decides to show and check up on the gimps. He couldn't go back to his apartment that's for sure, with all his papers he could find a nicer and more legit place, but he still didn't really have the funds to do so. Next time he was in Beacon he'd ask Ozpin when his paycheck was coming in.

He was still in the sewers; he made his way out of the shadier parts of the city and to one of the parks that was in the nice-ish part of Vale. Taking a seat at one of the park benches he started flipping through his scroll, he received a few texts and missed phone calls from Warren, mostly telling him to call back, the last text was from a few hours ago asking if he was alright, not knowing that Alex was getting humped in the fucking face at the time.

Alex called up Warren.

"Hey Alex, you okay?"

"Nah, I'm pretty fucking far from okay," Alex could still feel the immense stinging on his back, not the worst he's been through and certainly not life-threatening but mostly his rude awakening was what was putting him in a damper mood.

"What happened?"

"I went to talk with Junior, tried calling in your favor, in short, it didn't go so well but I'll tell you about that another time,"

"Damn it, Alex," Warren sighed "What happened then?"

"I think someone working for Roman tailed me back home, she was at the bar eating ice cream. I 'interviewed' one of my kidnappers and said she worked for Roman, he might have just been telling me what I wanted to hear though. She sent some guys to get me while I was trying to catch some sleep," Alex neglected to mention that he had huffed a drug shortly before hindering his senses and is what basically got him in this situation in the first place.

"Okay, okay," Alex could hear Warren over the scroll fumbling to grab his keys "where are you right now?"

"At Tangerine park,"

"And the guys?"

"Dead,"

"Alright, I'm coming to pick you up, I can't let you stay at my place, but I'll get you squared away,"

Alex waited a little while before Warren showed up in his car, Alex threw his duffel bag in the back seat before getting the car.

"You grabbed your stuff from home?" asked Warren

"No, they took my shit and were planning on selling it after they offed me,"

Then Warren noticed his Pip-Boy

"No offense Alex, but what is that piece of junk strapped to your arm,"

"It's a prototype from my grandfather's company from way back when has a sentimental value plus it's sturdy as all hell,"

Warren started driving, thankfully not pressing for any more details.

"Look, I can't get you a place right now, so I'll have to throw you in Beacon for now,"

That's something Alex was not very excited for.

"Uh, I don't know about that, I'd rather not get crushed to death because some kids decided to have a showdown in the courtyard," Alex knew he'd make it out unscathed if that did ever happen but that would cause some questions for someone without Aura surviving a body thrown at them at high speeds.

"Yeah I know it sounds weird, but it's the only thing I can do on such short notice,"

"Well thanks anyways,"

"No problem, and here take this," Warren handed Alex a yellow card "It's a keycard, Ozpin keeps a couple of rooms in the east wing for agents who are stopping by and need a place to crash,"

"Thanks, and about the raid,"

There silence in the car for a few moments, the deal with Junior went sour and now Warren was grumbling, he was the first to speak

"What happened with Junior?"

"Went sour, said the favor was too expensive and that he could only provide his men in his current state,"

"Fuck," muttered Warren, "I think we might need to see Ozpin for help after all,"

"What about the law enforcement," Alex threw his pitch in, it'd make things a hell of a lot easier if they could get a VAIG unit as they were the only competent fighting force besides maybe the SWAT teams or the Huntsman.

"No way, they're not exactly going to be subtle,"

"Neither are the Huntsman," Alex quipped back, while very entertaining to watch fight, it wasn't very exciting to watch the supposed defenders of humanity breakdance just to get a door open.

"I mean in the way that they're going to brag to Ozpin and name drop us or heavily allude to us. We're pretty much the only one of his agents actively on the White Fangs trail, so our asses would end up on his dinner menu,"

"Alright, alright, jeez," guess that idea was out the window and confirming his suspicions that Sangria was more of an Oliver.

It wasn't long before they reached the bullhead ferry.

"I already let Ozpin know you were coming, said your apartment was compromised. If he asks for any more details tell him White Fang was tailing you. Do not mention Roman or Junior at all,"

"Of course not,"

"Alright I'll meet up with you at Beacon tomorrow, we got a meeting with Ozpin the morning anyways,"

"Thanks a bunch, Warren, see you later,"

Alex made his exit and over to the bullhead. He wasn't exactly thrilled about being stuck at Beacon for however long he was going to be there, but it was either this or tough it out on the streets. As soon as his work-related things were finished, he'd look for a new apartment in his free time. Being around a bunch of hormonal teenagers wasn't exactly ideal, he also wouldn't be comfortable with working on the MK II while he was there.

It tied in with his other concern, that he'd most likely be watched a lot more closely now that he was at the school and short walk away from his boss's office.

The Brightside of crashing at Beacon was that he could gain access to the selection of obscure books it had in its library, normally reserved for students or faculty, Alex was sure he'd be able to convince Ozpin to let him use the library. Oh, and the armory as well.

Alex pushed these thoughts out, for now, he finally landed in Beacon and was making his way over to his temporary abode. Ozpin had sent him a map of the school since there was currently no one available to help guide him to his room.

Alex would run into the occasional student, but they didn't really pay much attention to him, most were still celebrating in the ballroom. Celebrating their new teams and surviving Emerald forest. In the background he could hear echoes of "Saturdays are for the boys," which confused Alex because it wasn't Saturday, it was Tuesday.

Not many were in the dorm rooms, especially in the east wing as it's primarily reserved for foreign students participating in the Vytal festival, it was eerie walking the empty halls at night. He arrived at the door; door number 6.

_'Fitting'_

Alex scanned the key card and the doors lock was disengaged, entering the room it was far more spacious and cleaner compared to the piece of shit he was staying in for almost a week. The room even had its own kitchen and a personal bathroom.

It was a shame it was on campus and that'd he'd have to leave soon but hopefully, he'd be able to find a place as nice as this once his pay started to kick, he was going to be on Remnant for while so he might as well get cozy.

He threw his duffel bag on the bed and got a shower in.

With his Pip-Boy still on.

It was a habit at this point.

He washed thoroughly, the lashes on his back weren't too bad now so he enjoyed his shower. Tonight, he'd sleep while being on full alert, a skill he developed while sleeping out in the Wasteland.

Tomorrow they'd get back on the mission and try to solve their manpower dilemma and appeal to Ozpin.

**AN: Okay so maybe I lied a little about Alex not going to Beacon but it's only a temporary stay and I wanted him to get a few interactions in with the main cast of RWBY. This chapter was kind of rough to write because I'm a procrastinator and because I scrapped the first version mid-way through writing it. I also started up my 4****th**** or 5****th**** run of Fallout 1 so that contributed as well. It also made me think of writing a crackfic with the Chosen one for some reason, you don't see that many fics with him. Plus, Fallout 2 was way more out there with the pop culture references and breaking the fourth wall than any other Fallout, so I think it'd suit the theme. Anyways, enough of my ramblings, hope you have a good one. **


	7. Chapter 7

**El Dia De Mi Suerte III**

Ruby was up and early

So was the rest of her team except for Weiss. She was still knocked out cold and would let out a bear snore at random intervals making Ruby giggle.

Ruby was the first to get up since she was used to Yang always hogging the bathroom in the mornings because she 'needed' to groom herself and her hair. Well, she thought she was the first, it was Blake actually. Blake was already in her school uniform and reading a book on her bed.

Ruby said good morning and Blake responded likewise.

The next to wake up was her sister and thankfully Ruby was already done with her business and was dressed for the school day. As usual, it took forever for Yang to get ready, at this point, it was more of a habit than anything. Sure, she'd try to catch the eyes of boys and the occasional sugar daddy, but usually, her explosive anger issues staved many a man off and ended many a relationship.

As Ruby got older it'd scare her to see her sister like that, Dad even considered getting therapy for Yang, but nothing ever came of it.

Anyways after she was done, Weiss finally awoke from her hibernation, a little too slowly for Ruby's liking. So, pulling out a whistle, it came with a goodie bag all the team leaders got and oh boy was it the time to use it. Also, it'd be funny to get this B-I-T-C-H back.

Ruby blew the whistle as hard as she could, right next to Weiss and Weiss comically fell to the ground with a yelp.

After Weiss was brought up to speed, they started unpacking all their luggage, far too tired to unpack the previous night. While Weiss got ready the rest of them started unpacking their things and arranging it wherever Weiss joined them shortly after and she let out a frustrated sigh at the sight of the current state of the room. She tried the best she could to organize her things but there was only so much she could do.

Ruby got one of Blake's luggage cases mixed up with her own, when she opened it up, she was greeted with a slew of pornographic films. Ruby quickly shut the case and thankfully nobody noticed her opening it up. Ruby would probably never look at Blake the same ever again.

A short unpacking montage later and everything was a complete mess.

The beds somehow managed to get piled up on top of each either during said montage.

Showing off her leadership skills and quick thinking, Ruby decided that they needed to build improvised bunk beds. Everyone, except Weiss, were in agreement, Weiss thought it was a terrible idea. A vote was held and Weiss lost to the majority.

By the lady of Vale did Ruby love Direct democracy.

They quickly assembled their bunk beds, once they were done Ruby stepped back to admire their handiwork.

It looked like a piece of shit.

Blake and Yang's bunk beds were built using books from Blakes collection that she was already finished reading. As for Ruby's bunk bed, it was dangling above Weiss's with some rope they found it Blakes luggage.

It was strange that Blake even had rope in the first place.

After that, Ruby went over the days schedule, enthusiastic about the first day. She wasn't too enthusiastic about class. Ruby did skip 2 years of schooling which Ozpin conveniently overlook, Ruby was not at all ready or looking forward to the more advanced subjects that Beacon was teaching.

Ruby cracked open her notebook and began going over the schedule.

"Now, we have a few classes together today. At 9 we got-"

"What!" interrupted Weiss, her eyes nearly popping out her head "Did you say 9 o'clock!"

"Uh," Ruby didn't know what she was getting worked up over, Beacon did give first year's extra time today so they could unpack.

"It's 8:55 you dunce!"

Oh.

Weiss ran out the room with the rest of RBY following her out the door. Even team JNPR tagged along in their mad dash to class. Not only did they completely miss breakfast, but they were about to be late to class. Beacon's a large school. Definitely going to be late.

Turned out it was pointless in showing up on time, their teacher wasn't even there! Students were waiting in the hallway conversing amongst each other, one student that Ruby overheard said that they could legally leave if the teacher was more than 15 minutes late.

She doubted that it was a thing.

Anyways Port, their teacher, finally showed up and was apologizing for his tardiness.

The class was boring.

Port didn't teach anything besides regaling the students with his time as a young Huntsman braving the wilds across Remnant. Maybe there was some helpful tips about fighting the different types of Grimm, but that was only if Ruby read between lines. Mostly, Ruby was busy catching up on some sleep, the excitement from earlier in the morning wearing off as Ports ramblings continued.

As he kept going on, Ruby would make little doodles in her moments of consciousness. Something she's done since her Signal days for any teacher she didn't like as much, her sister laughed at it when she showed her.

Weiss not so much.

When Port was going over what makes a good Huntsman, Weiss was getting increasingly angry while giving a death glare to Ruby. Ruby was too busy picking her nose. Then Weiss raised her hand thinking she was the perfect embodiment of what makes a good Huntsman, very full of herself. Ruby still didn't know what was going on, not really paying attention to what Port was saying, it made her question if this really was the prestigious academy she was so hyped to go to.

All Ruby knew was that Weiss was about to fight a Grimm, which was exciting. Weiss left to grab her weapon and change out of her uniform and into her 'combat' clothes. The rest of RBY gave Weiss words of encouragement, but when it came to Ruby, Weiss basically told her to shut her trap. It made Ruby think Weiss was one of those people to unironically use a Specialist copypasta.

Anyways, Port opened the cage and revealed a Boarbatusk, a young one at that. In short, Weiss was struggling throughout the fight, it wasn't like the Boarbatusk was too hard to fight it was just that Weiss clearly had something else on her mind other than fighting. When Ruby tried offering advice or words of encouragement, Weiss would only shut her down, yet when Port would pitch in with his color commentary then she said nothing.

By the end of the fight, the class was ending and Weiss was exhausted. Ruby felt terrible like she did something to anger Weiss that Ruby didn't know about. Weiss left the classroom in a huff and Ruby ran after her. As Weiss was rounding the corner Ruby called out to her.

"Weiss! What's wrong with you! Why are you be-"

"What's wrong with me! What's wrong with you! You're supposed to be a leader and all you've been so far is a nuisance,"

Ah, so that's how she's going to be.

"Ugh, what did I do?" said Ruby

"That's just it, you've done nothing to earn your position! Back in the forest, you acted like a child and you've only continued to do so,"

"Weiss, where is all this coming from? What happened to all the talk about working together? I thought you believed in acting as a team,"

"Not a team led by you,"

That really stung Ruby.

Weiss continued on "I've studied and trained and quite frankly I deserve better. Ozpin made a mistake,"

After making her declaration of insubordination she walked away with the clack of her bitchy sounding high heels. How can high heels sound bitchy? Don't ask me, pal, I'm just writing the story.

Ruby turned to leave with her eyes starting to get watery, what Weiss told her didn't help the insecurities that Ruby already held since she was chosen as the leader of the team and if anything, only confirmed them.

But like the creepy old man he is, Ozpin showed up out of nowhere. It scared the living shit out of Ruby for a moment.

"Hmm, now that didn't seem to go very well," said Ozpin

"Is she right? Did you make a mistake?"

"That remains to be seen," responded Ozpin, there was no way he would outright admit he made a mistake like that, well maybe except that Jaune boy, but Beacon would weed him out sooner or later. Of course, he made mistakes, he wasn't infallible, but he likes to think the random button on his computer did a pretty good job of choosing team leaders. In fact, he was a little indignant at Weiss's comments, he'd half the mind to deport her ass out of Vale and straight into an Atlesian Bootcamp.

Ozpin had a little pep talk with Ruby, addressing her grievances and telling her it was only her first day and that she would improve over the course of her time here at Beacon. Oh boy, did he hope he was right, all that paperwork he had to go through at the last minute just to get Ruby into his school was a major pain in the ass. Glynda refused in helping Ozpin, especially after he already let in a former terrorist into their school, that sure as hell wasn't easy to hide from the Council and if Warren ever found out he'd raise a massive shitstorm.

In hindsight he probably should have just handed her off to Warren, she was, after all, the second-highest-ranking member in the White Fang cell of Vale. She would have been sure to know a lot about the base of operations the White Fang had and the Council wouldn't think he was just sitting on his ass. Then again, she was technically royalty and that would have caused a major international incident.

It was easier when he was king, he could always tell the peasants to shut up if they ever raised a fuss. He could never really remember why he decided to switch his strategy over to cold wars and deep states.

Oh well.

With the conversation over, Ruby walked away feeling a little better about herself. Hopefully Ozpin didn't have to do that again, because he was sure as hell wasn't doing it for any other student on campus.

_Earlier in the day…_

There was silence within the elevator. Warren and Alex didn't have much to say. Alex was busy trying his best to keep it together, he had a little too much to drink last night after he pulled out his custom-made hooch, obviously not learning his lesson from the events earlier that day. He kept telling himself he was always able to handle the drunk better than the high, which was true, a little talent he developed after many a bar fight.

He was wearing a pair of shades he bought from a 99-cent store a few days ago, they looked lame, but it helped keep the sun out and hide his shame from everyone. He'd feel a lot better later in the day.

Warren beside him was dreading the fact about having to work with Ozpin's kids again, earlier he told Alex about his horror story on their way to the elevator. Apparently, the kids Ozpin sent him had a few Faunus students on the two teams, they went to stop a White Fang raiding party from making off with a shipment of weapons and ammo to outfit a small army.

Then the kids started monologuing with the White Fang much to the chagrin of Warren. While they were monologuing with the Huntsman, they had others look for another way out of the Warehouse as the Huntsman were blocking their way out. Thankfully VAIG came just in time, creating an explosion on one of the walls, they breached the warehouse and blasted the White Fang away.

That led to a confrontation between the Huntsman and the VAIG squad, but thankfully it was broken up before any of them could come to blows.

As much as Alex likes to knock on the Huntsman, they could still kick his ass if he wasn't careful. The Huntsman in training he could probably deal with them if he was careful, which he always is during fights, as for veteran Huntsman, well he's fought mother Deathclaws and alpha male Deathclaws with the help of heavy ordinance and a healthy amount of luck so he thinks he'll do just fine. The problem arises from Huntsman being highly mobile fighters and with their auras, the idea of cover and concealment was entirely lost on them. Which worked fine against Grimm, but Huntsman could only zip and zag for so long against his sniper fire.

Forget about getting close range with a Huntsman, Alex would consider himself a decent melee fighter, but Huntsman were on a whole other level. He'd be chop suey. If he had to get close range, he would, but only if there was no other choice.

Alex wasn't planning on making enemies of Ozpin anytime soon. Huntsman were just known to essentially work for the highest bidder especially the older and more bitter they got. The only reason rogue Huntsman was a title is if they go directly or indirectly against the academies' interests in which case they get labeled as degenerates and traitors.

Anyways, Alex left his ruminations behind when the elevator doors opened, before they could make their appeals, they had to give Ozpin the scoop as to what they found out on the electronics that were successfully acquired.

They walked into the clockwork themed office, Ozpin took no notice of Alex's Pip-Boy, if he did then he didn't care enough to make a comment on it. Warren grumbled about there never being any seats in Ozpin's office.

"Good morning gentlemen let's get straight into it, shall we. Warren what information do you have on this drug farm you mentioned,"

Warren cleared his throat and looked at the stapled stack of papers he brought in with him. A much more condensed version of the original report with the information only pertaining to the farm.

"There's a White Fang operated farm of 512 acres just outside the village of Newsale. Cash crops are mainly grown there such as Cannabis and opium poppies, more mundane cash crops are also grown such as Wheat and Barley most likely to avoid suspicion,"

Another oddity about Remnant was that they used a lot of Latin rooted words, in fact, it was a miracle that Remnant's linguistics evolved the same as earths or relatively the same. There was still that odd slang term that he'll hear, but other than that he can understand pretty much everything, which he was thankful for and also thankful for them using the same Roman alphabet. It still made Alex flip flop back and forth as to whether he was still on earth but just far into the future or on a different planet altogether.

Right now, it wasn't the best time to be wondering. Warren continued his report.

"There's also a fortified compound that holds a garrison of White Fang and houses the workers as well,"

"They do not force the local village into labor?" asked Ozpin

"No, as far as we know from the information we've gathered they've been sourced mostly from migrants coming from Menagerie, they're essentially working to pay off the fees that it took the White Fang to transport them to the farm and pay the rest of the trip to Vale,"

Ozpin nodded "Carry on,"

"As I was saying, the garrison itself is no larger than 30 combatants, most of it is out guarding the farmers or patrolling the roads steering wanderers away from the farm. Occasionally White Fang raiding parties will make a stop to resupply before heading back out. There's no raiding within the immediate area of the village though, most likely to avoid suspicion,"

"And is Newsale aware of the White Fang presence? Or least suspicious of the farm itself, I doubt that heavily armed Faunus staving people off wouldn't raise suspicions,"

"In Milo's reports he did say that the village was starting to get suspicious, so they sent in the original owner of the farm into the village to explain things, while they kept his family hostage back at the farm. He told the farmers that he just got bought out from some company out in Menagerie, the villagers seemed to accept the lie never mind the fact there's no company that large on Menagerie that's even close to buying out farms abroad. The actual story was that he developed a drinking and gambling problem, he got into debt and the White Fang conveniently came in and offered to settle the debt if he only sold the farm to them,"

Ozpin took a minute to think before asking another question.

"Is this farm financing the White Fang in Vale,"

"Not entirely, they have other sources of income. It's mostly small-time stuff, but they also have an anonymous source, supposedly it's a considerable amount of Lien but Milo wasn't sure of the exact figures. However, if the farm was knocked out of operation it would slow down operations here in Vale and it would severely slow down or halt operations elsewhere throughout the Kingdom,"

Ozpin mulled over what Warren said, he looked deep in concentration, something was not sitting right with Ozpin. He pondered for a few minutes before speaking once more.

"Thank you, both of you, for bringing this to my attention. Unfortunately, before we can take any action, I will need to gather a force to send with you,"

Warren had puzzled look on his face "What do you mean? You can't call upon one of your Huntsman or a team of students,"

"I'm afraid not, it is too early in the school year to start sending the teams on missions and the council has been taking issue with my 'liberal' use of Huntsman on non-Grimm related issues. So, it will need to be postponed,"

A sense of relief washed over Warren not having to be sent with a bunch of kids and Alex was just relieved he wasn't throwing up all over Ozpin's office.

There was no real rush to take the farm, it wasn't like the White Fang was on to them. Milo only kept inventory for the various bases in Vale and the position shifted regularly. At some point, Milo got sick of all the codenames and secrecy because he dropped all that with the recent logs, it explained why there was a lot more info on this base than the others.

Ozpin had more to say however.

"I do have a lead you and Alex can investigate in the meantime. It is more a rumor, I was recently contacted by the mayor of Myersville, a village to the southeast. He claims that there was a recent White Fang sighting and was adamant that they were White Fang, I want the both of you to investigate these claims,"

"Are you sure it's worth investigating? Myersville doesn't have much that the White Fang would want, and it could turn out the sighting is totally bogus," said Warren

"I will not take any chances, if you feel however the whole thing is fluke then you may call it off, but I implore you to stay for at least a few days to verify these rumors,"

"Alright then, we'll check it out,"

"Good, I'll call in a bullhead, it will be ready to leave at 9:30,"

Things were starting to wind down, Alex was grateful he didn't have to speak throughout the whole meeting, he wasn't even sure why he was there in the first place, but he wasn't complaining.

Ozpin looked at Alex.

_'Oh fuck,'_

"Alex, I almost forgot, how did the interrogation go with the prisoner, specifically what did you learn from him,"

_'Jesus, I don't know why Warren can't explain, he was in the same damn room as me,'_

It wouldn't do to just bitch and moan in his mind, he was going to have to speak.

"Um, we didn't learn much from him, just that the White Fang was stealing a lot of Dust and are planning something big. That was about as much as he knew," Alex didn't say much but he felt like he was about to puke with just about every other word.

"Hmm, very well. If there is nothing else then the both of you may leave,"

Alex and Warren made their way out.

Warren was going to head back home to pack a few things, Alex was going to go puke then he was going to start packing. After reaching his room he retched his guts out into the toilet, he felt a little better after that. His body would take care of the rest and he should feel better by noon, now it was time to start packing.

Since it was more of a reconnaissance mission, he was going to bring his MP5SD for this one, the 9mm rounds wouldn't have the same stopping power like the other weapons in his arsenal but that wasn't the point of the mission, as a sidearm he'd carry his trust A Light Shining in Darkness. Alex did decide on bringing his Hécate II if the village was getting hit at any point by either White Fang or Grimm he'd want to have some serious stopping power, he disassembled the anti-material rifle and put in his duffel bag alongside the MP5SD.

The Pip-Boy was still coming along for the ride, he wanted to be prepared if they ever did get caught into a serious firefight, the use of his Pip-Boy would raise questions, but if it came down to a life or death situation then he'd worry about the consequences later. Alex was still packing other things such as a harness with ammo pouches to carry his MP5 ammo, also packing away extra underwear and socks.

What? Did you think he would wear only one pair of socks and underwear?

It may be a Wasteland he just crawled out of, but he wasn't a complete barbarian. At heart, he was still that little pampered vault dweller, but as he fumbled around the Wastes, he learned basic survival skills from pre-war survival manuals and got most of his real-world experience through trial and error. Occasionally friendlier folk would teach him how to live off the land, solving his undergarment crisis by teaching him how to make loincloths and puttees. The only pain in the ass was cleaning your clothes since a lot of the water in the D.C. area at the time was still mostly irradiated, it wouldn't do to soak your clothes in that or even to wash yourself.

Nowadays the water in D.C. is a lot cleaner from what he's heard, not as if it matters anyway because he abused the hell out of the vending machines from the Sierra Madre to give himself clean clothes, that was probably way more valuable than the gold ever was.

Anyways, among the many errands Alex accomplished the other day, buying underwear and socks was one of them. Just because he knew all these survival skills didn't mean he couldn't take advantage of the bountiful resources this city has.

The bullhead wouldn't leave for another hour, so Alex decided to eat some breakfast as he worked his appetite up already and took the time to read a little about the Myersville. Ozpin said the dining hall was open to him and the food without a doubt would be top-notch since Beacon had its own team of chefs, he could even put in a request for them to make Alex something off the breakfast menu. That sounded nice, but breakfast was in full swing in the dining hall and he'd look weird standing in a line with a bunch of kids significantly younger than him. Alex settled on a can of beans he had in his Pip-Boy; he didn't have the time to cook anything.

There wasn't too much information he could find on the village, he did find out that the village has a website where they boast about being one of the largest exporters of wheat in Vale and they have a centuries-old castle since before the Great War. Other than that, there was no other information about the village with it being a relatively obscure location.

Alex was agreeing with Warren on this one. The village was out in the bumfuck of nowhere, he doubted that the village had anything the White Fang wanted, maybe except for food. White Fang out in the wilds, when they're not fighting off Grimm, are usually targeting convoys or bullheads headed for Vale, mostly to steal the cargo and ransom off the crew, if they were still alive.

A village-like Myersville wouldn't be ordering anything that would catch the Fangs interest. They could be making moves to extorting the village, Alex didn't really know, he was mostly operating on his past experiences out in the Wasteland, if they're not already extorting or raiding the village then they must be set in terms of resources for now and in no real pressure to attack.

Whatever it was or whoever it was they'd find out soon enough. The bullhead would soon be leaving, grabbing his duffel he made his way out. Warren was waiting for him with his own luggage by the bullhead and they soon departed. In total the flight would take around 3 hours to get to the village, the bullhead was a slightly larger variant because of the cargo hold, they were coming in with the ammo shipment for the militia.

Warren was typing away at his laptop, emailing contacts and the such while Alex fiddled with his Pip-Boy checking his inventory looking at the absurd amount of ammo he had. A few times Warren would look up from his laptop, at Alex's Pip-Boy and just shake his head in disbelief.

Alex noticed and took a deep offense to that.

_'Oh yeah sure, a scroll can do everything a Pip-Boy can do and more, but can a scroll be used as an improvised bludgeoning device? I think not,' _

Plus, his Pip-Boy can store gear, although that was a feature added much later. It was mostly based mostly off the vending machine technology from the Sierra Madre, Mothership Zeta tech helped as well but that was by total accident, it happened while the Think Tank was tinkering with the teleporters. Alex had no idea how it led to creating a pocket dimension within his Pip-Boy, but whatever, it let him store more shit. It would keep him awake at night at times, the Think Tank told him there was a small chance that Pip-Boy might just turn into a black hole and swallow up the earth. That really scared the shit out of him.

Time continued to pass, and Alex closed his eyes, resting in the corner of the bullhead. He wasn't tired really; it was more about passing time. Warren looked busy and he didn't know him that well and would rather not have pointless small talk.

Once they landed, there was no formal greeting or anything like that. It was just members of the militia coming to unload all the cargo off from the bullhead, one of them led Alex and Warren to the castle. The village was a decent size village of around 1,253 people from what Alex has read over the internet. The village had two walls, the first surrounded the entirety of the village, with it being made up of concrete and barbed wires atop it. The second wall was surrounding the castle itself where it sat perched on one of the three hills of the village, the walls looked much older, mostly of cobblestone.

The castle continued its age-old function of acting as an administrative center, back in the days it was like a Camp Golf since the region used to be a hotbed for Grimm activity and the castle was built for Huntsman to rest up before they went out and culled the population. In time the Grimm population whittled down and so did its relevance, switching over to a more administrative center.

Walking up a series of steps, their guide them to where they would be staying. Alex and Warren threw in their luggage into their respective rooms, they'd unpack later, for now, they still had a mayor to meet.

They continued to follow the guide to the mayor's office, the office was more an office/bedroom, to the right corner of the room near a window there was the mayor, a scrawny little man and looking deathly afraid of something. Next to him was a much larger man with red curly hair and a bushy beard, he looked jolly, like a red-headed Santa that hit the gym frequently. He had what looked like an Atlesian styled rifle strapped to him, same with the pistol holstered to his side, wasn't wearing any type of body armor, must have come back from a beat around the wall.

The mayor got up from his seat to greet Warren as he looked like the most senior of the two.

"It's great that you came, we've got sightings of White Fang in the area and the Grimm have been ramping up lately we nee-"

Warren put his hand up to simmer down the mayor.

"Calm down, we're only here to investigate the White Fang sightings, if Grimm should become a problem then a team of Huntsman is on standby to respond to the threat,"

It was a lie, but it calmed down the mayor.

"Right, right, sorry about that," the mayor pulled out a handkerchief to wipe the sweat off his forehead, it wasn't hot in the room it was just the mayor's nerves getting to him.

"Take a seat Dave, simmer down," said the bearded man, patting the mayor on the back. The man had a peculiar accent, Alex couldn't pinpoint as to where it's from exactly, but he could tell he wasn't originally from Vale.

Dave did as he was told and took a seat, the man was obviously letting his mind getting the better of him, not being used to dealing with situations like these.

The bushy-bearded man didn't seem disturbed at all, most likely thinking the situation wasn't as serious as the mayor thought it was.

"Alright so what was this about White Fang in the area?" asked Warren

The bearded man spoke for the mayor.

"A few of my boys were out surveying the region, looking for Grimm tracks, checking if the Grimm were going to migrate this fall, the usual. Much to their surprise, they ran into two Faunus, both equipped with rifles,"

"And that was alarming?" interjected Alex

"Oh no, no, don't get me wrong I'm not racist or anything like that and neither are my men, as far as I know. What was alarming was that they ran off before the patrol could even talk to them. When the patrol investigated the area, they found a busted-up radio and antenna,"

A side note, radios do in fact exist on Remnant, but nothing long-range and since they could never launch satellites up into space the CCT's dominated.

"How long ago was this? And do you still have the radio and the antenna?" asked Warren

"It was 2 days ago, and yes we still have it,"

"Have you tried repairing it?"

"We had a man that would repair radios and electronic but he had a family emergency in Vale and left last week and well it's just a radio at the end of the day, even if it was repaired it would not give us any more clues as to where the men went,"

"Still I want it fixed, see if there's anything in the area,"

Warren looked over to Alex

"Know anything about fixing radios,"

"I know a thing or two. I'll try to get it repaired, but no promises," said Alex

The bearded man looked a little extra jolly at that.

"Ah, superb news! I'll show you to the armory, Dave insisted that we kept it somewhere secure, for whatever reason. Come, follow me,"

"I'll stay here and bounce some questions off of the mayor," said Warren

The bearded man led Alex to the armory, along the way they introduced themselves.

"I'm Alex by the way,"

"And I am Sigismund, but please, call me Sigi,"

"You from Atlas by chance?" asked Alex, he certainly had a Germanic sounding name and he had that slight accent.

"Yes, from Mantle specifically, low landers are little more traditional and like speaking the old tongue, at least in certain neighborhoods. Never cared much about speaking the old tongue much myself,"

"So, what brought you to Vale? If you don't mind me asking,"

"Not at all, I moved here a year ago, my sister has a bakery here with her husband and they told me the old commander of the militia was retiring and since I had some military experience they asked if I could fill the role. And uh as for what made me make the move…" Sigi adopted an uncomfortable look on his face and started scratching his beard.

"You don't have to answer if you don't want to, sorry for bringing it up,"

"No it's alright, just a little frustrating," Sigi sighed "Don't want to get too emotional with a stranger, but you could probably piece it together if you've been watching the news so I might as well just tell you. I was a sergeant in the Atlesian Army and the army was replacing the regular ground troops with the newer AK-200's, Atlas's plan was to focus more on cranking out robots and using specialists if a situation called for a more human touch. Anyways a lot of units got demobilized, including mine, very abruptly. As soon as the AK-200's came in, the council wanted us gone, there was little foresight on the matter and it turned out to be a whole confusing mess of paperwork that the army administration got overwhelmed with,"

They continued walking and rounded the corner where the armory door was at, Sigi wrapped up his explanation.

"Basically, I was thrown into civilian life abruptly and without any kind of pension, I tried enlisting as a marine but the Council declared that any soldiers from a recently demobilized unit cannot enlist into other branches of the military for a period of 5 years. Anyways, enough of my melancholic ramblings, we've arrived,"

The armory door was made of solid steel, looked modern and out of place compared to the other sections of the castle, Sigi punched in the codes to the door and unlocked it. It was small inside, only containing a few racks with spare guns, there was mostly ammo stacked in here and replacement parts for guns. In the middle of the room, there was a table with the broken radio and antenna on the table.

"So, what do you think?" asked Sigi

"It's not too banged up, as a matter of fact, you could have just fixed yourselves but whatever. I'll need a few tools to fix it up though,"

"Come then, we should have a few things in the shack out in the courtyard,"

After Alex and Sigi grabbed a few tools and some duct tape, Alex got to work. In total it took maybe 5 minutes to fix it, it wasn't too dissimilar from the portable radios that NCR troopers would lug around, the only difference is that this is much smaller and lighter compared to the 38-pound radio troopers would have to lug around.

Another side note, Since Vertibirds, were becoming more common in military operations, NCR had at least one trooper in a platoon to have a portable radio in order to call in air support or artillery strikes. Most of these troopers were from the newly formed NCR signal corp.

Back to the radio, Alex started fiddling around with the knobs making sure it was working, he was mostly getting static from the speaker, it was dumb but at least now he knew it worked. Sigi left to go check on the militia guards posted around the castle and let Alex do his thing.

"White Fang here, why isn't you unit working, we're still getting static," a voice uttered from the speakers.

It made Alex jump like he just got caught jerking off. Now he guesses he has to respond.

"Uh, we're working on it right now, just wanted to test it,"

"Well, your unit still doesn't appear to be working, pal. Who is this?"

"Well, that's not unusual, is it? Nothing works right anymore,"

"Huh, ain't that the truth. Just don't let anyone who's got Adam's ear hear that. You'll be making cargo runs to Vale 'til the end of time, pal,"

"Adam?"

"Yeah, you know how he gets when people complain. He takes it personal, like it's a loyalty thing,"

"Adam Taurus?" not one of Alex's brightest moments

"Adam Taurus the leader of the fucking White Fang. Who'd you think I was talking about? Who the fu- Who is- What- I should kick your fucking ass! Who is this?"

_'Oh fuck, oh fuck,' _

"Uh, you're not important enough to know that,"

"Oh? You're a wise guy huh? Look I'm tracing you right now pal. We'll see how smart you feel when Lieu chews your ass out. Dickhead!"

"I've got your trace for you, and I can show you where you can shove it,"

_'This dork won't be able to trace me. Or at least I hope so,' _

"Ah, a few more moments and I'll have your ass in a sling, wait a moment. This can't be right, your team is nowhere near the designated comms zone,"

"That's right sucker. Right where you can't get me," said Alex feeling smug about himself.

"I've got you. At Myersville. Ah, well, why don't you just sit tight, and I'll order up a little celebration for ya. Including fireworks,"

"Yeah, yeah, whatever, keep talking you blowhard,"

"Well, whoever you are, I just dispatched a death squad to your location. Have a nice day,"

"And what are they going to do?" Alex doubted had an actual team that could drop in on the castle, it seemed a little too out of reach for the White Fang.

"Usually they just go in shooting. They let someone else search through the bodies to figure out what was going on,"

"Oooo, now you've got me all scared. I need to change my undies," said Alex in a mocking tone.

"Yeah. Goodbye,"

And with that, the line went dead.

Alex sighed

_'That could have gone a lot better… oh well! Not like they can do anything and if they can, well I'll just let my gun do the talking,' _

Unfortunately, Alex still believed the end of a gun barrel could solve most problems if diplomacy was thrown out by his own blunders.

_'Should get back to Warren and tell him what happened. I'll also conveniently leave out the fact that I messed up during that Adam part. I'd rather avoid Ozpin's version of 'firing' an employee. Probably more like firing them in the back of their heads,' _

Alex walked back to where the mayor's office was, Warren was just about done, he looked over to Alex.

"So, how'd it go?"

"Well I fixed the radio, problem was I made a random encounter with the White Fang over the radio,"

"Oh shit, so they're nearby?"

The mayor paled at hearing this.

"Pretty much, the guy thought I was apart of a comms team, I goaded him into talking, see if I could find out more, but then he started tracing me and well it went to shit after that,"

"What'd he say?"

"Threatened to send a death squad,"

The mayor was starting to shake like leaf now.

Warren snorted at that

"Not likely, anyway we'll worry about that later. For now, Sigismund is gathering a convoy and some of his men, he wants us to look at the sight of where the Faunus were last seen. Get suited up I'll meet you at the entrance of the village,"

Alex went back to his room and started equipping his harness and putting the MP5 strap over himself, he looked over the disassembled anti-material rifle and pondered if he should bring it or not.

_'Nah, I'm taking it with me,'_

He quickly assembled it and materialized it into his Pip-Boy, if there was an emergency on their way back or on the way there to the location then he'd whip it out. He met up with the convoy that was assembled near the entrance of the village, there was 4 old and beat up SUV's and two pick up trucks fitted out with what looks like M2 Browning's, they slapped on a plate shielding around the gun to protect a portion of the gunner. The militia looked ragtag, besides Sigi, only a few others looked to be wearing body armor, the rest were either wearing flak jackets or nothing at all. The only consistent thing was the rifles, they all looked like Atlesian knock offs.

In total there was 22 personnel on this convoy, including Alex, Sigi, and Warren. The mayor didn't want too much of the militia leaving.

Sigi approached Alex.

"Load up in with Charles over there by the black SUV, Warren is riding with me,"

They loaded up into the vehicles, the SUV Alex was in was only himself and the driver. The steel gates opened, and the convoy rolled out, in total it would take 40 minutes for the convoy to reach their destination.

"Hey, is it cool if I put some music on?" asked the driver

"Go ahead, just don't blast it too loud,"

The driver used his right hand to open up his scroll, as he was looking for a playlist, he would look up to make sure he wasn't crashing into the pickup truck in front of him or lagging behind the rest of the convoy. The driver finally found the playlist he was looking for and pressed shuffle.

It was a song about thongs.

Alex just kept his eyes on the farmlands and thankful that the song wasn't too loud so he could easily tune it out.

Then the convoy entered the woods.

It was a visual shock for Alex; besides Oasis, he's never seen any areas that were this densely forested. The further they went in however, the woods started to become more ominous and darker, the only sunlight being on the dirt road and the occasional crack of sunlight within the forest. It put the driver on edge, he reached over to the volume knob and turned up the music to drown out his fears.

Alex frowned and looked at the driver like he was an idiot.

The driver didn't seem to care, he kept tapping away at the wheel to the music, singing along about some dude telling to look at a photograph.

_'This is gonna be a long drive,'_

**AN: Uhhh, hey my bad, I was going to upload yesterday but I got lazy. Honestly felt this chapter was kind of a snoozer and I hope to rectify that with the next chapter. Anyways hope you all have a good one and stay safe. **


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